A Greater Power
by Moxx13
Summary: After spending quality time in the underworld, the sons of Sparda are pulled into the world of Remnant. Now the two brothers must learn to adapt to their new surroundings while they search for each other. As Dante navigate's the darker streets of Vale for work, Vergil finds that even a devil may cry after loosing everything.
1. Chapter 1 (RE)

**A Greater Power**

**Hello all again! Still very new to this. I hope you like the story. It is one that is based loosely on a story that was canceled that I thought had a few very interesting idea. Since then I've added my own elements to the story that i think make it my own. I Had allot of fun writing it and if you're interested in seeing what happens next please leave a message. I'm still very new to writing fanfictions but I've been a long time reader on this sight. I'm still learning the ropes style in writing but if there are any painful mistakes I missed I'm all for going in and fixing them (now that I know how). Anyway, Like i said enjoy. **

_**DVDVDVDVDVDVDVDVDVDVD**_

The valleys of bleach white grass stretched long and far within the underworld with obsidian obelisks dotting the plains. After the qliphoth tree fell patches of debris have added to hell's landscape creating havens for demons to call home. These little havens also create some of the best arenas for the sons of Sparda to contest their abilities. After leaving another one of their matches to a draw the two started along the path. A vast canyon laid far in the distance of Dante and Vergil, the two walking along the gored red path at their feet, chunks of demon flesh fizzing into nothingness after being slain by the wandering half devils. Vergil gave a forceful swing of his Yamato, slinging any remaining demon blood off, and inspected his blade before slowly sheathing it. He dusted off the ashen remains of his latest kill from his black and blue trench coat as he looked over to his brother. The red clad demon hunter was drenched in blood and twirling around with his white Faust hat and scarf, the scarlet scarf already adding to its length absorbing the demonic energy. Vergil scoffed giving his brother a dry grin.

"Still not tired of this place, eh Dante?" Vergil said, reaching out to give Dante an extra push. Before he could grab his brother's shoulder, Dante reached out with one bloody hand, grabbing Vergil's arm and using him as a prop for one last flamenco-esc pose, tossed his other hand into the air.

"Olay!" Dante shouted. The echoing silence from the valleys of the demon world brought no applause. Vergil broke from his grip, slapping away the damp hand.

"Keep your filth to yourself," he said, watching the demon blood evaporate.

"Ha ha ha, it's been more than a couple of weeks now by my count," Dante said, shaking off the blood from his Faust, stowing it and the scarf. "Don't tell me you're slowing down already?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not the one behind by five heads," Vergil said holding out an open hand, "You're the one getting sloppy. I am only bringing to attention something you lack the finesse to notice." Vergil tipped the hilt of his blade away from the path. "In that direction I sense a weakening in the dimensional fold." He could sense it. The gentle slips he would make when moving between the fabrics of reality were similar. But this new sensation felt more like a draft left after a tear poorly patched. And the draft he sensed was not a familiar one.

Dante walked over to the edge of the path where Vergil was pointing. He reached his arm out and shut his eyes. "I don't know, bro. You sure it's not gas?" He said with a grin. A quick knock at the back of his head and Vergil was standing beside him, Yamato outstretched.

"Focus," Vergil said, "you may be familiar with the Yamato but this sense is an acquired skill." Vergil closed his eyes and focused. He felt the pressure from the ambient demonic energy of the realm, the way it mingled with his own energy. He felt the density of Dante's power towering beside him, his own strength to match.

"I don't feel anything different. You, me, this stinker of a place," Dante said, admittedly confused. "Besides, you're not thinking of trashing up another part of the world with demons, are you?"

"It wouldn't be worth it with you around," Vergil said, "And besides, I've achieved my power. No reason to go hunting for more. Knowing you and your antics, we would end up even anyway. What this little breach offers us is something much more interesting." Vergil could feel it more clearly now. Not in its presence but in the little gaps in everything else. An unusual sensation, like the calm before the storm.

Dante took a few more steps into the field. He was starting to grasp the presence Vergil had mentioned, if faintly. "Hmmm. Don't get me wrong, I'm up for a new challenge," he said, a sense of absence just starting to drift into his awareness, "I just don't want you getting lost in all the chaos."

"How touching," Vergil said with a dry laugh as he walks ahead of Dante. "And when were you so cautious?"

The scarlet demon hunter let his arms fall to his side. "I guess my big brother is starting to rub off on me," Dante jibed, catching up to matching pace with Vergil, "When were you so reckless?"

"I suppose the feeling is mutual," Vergil said, he turned to face Dante meeting his brother's stare. He held his hand out gripping Yamato, "I meant what I said, Dante. I have no interest in gaining more power. I have had my fill with that obsession. "The two stood there, eye to eye, waiting for the other to blink. Dante had stared down his brother many times before, all of them ending in a duel. This time it felt different. The same two crystal blue eyes fixed with burning determination had something else in them. Dante looked away.

"Jeez, alight. Fine," He said, raising his hands up. "What's got you all fired up about this thing anyway?"

Vergil lowered his hand, turning back towards the horizon. "It feels like nothing," he said, his mind focusing on the ambient energies. He had a clear picture of it now. "But that nothingness acts as if it were the ambient from our world."

"Yeah, this is going over my head," Dante said.

"Of course," Vergil said, "Think of this place, the demon world. When we crossed over, we could feel this world's aura encompassing us while the human world's aura faded away, yes?" Vergil began to walk forward beckoning Dante to follow. "This presence is like that, the human realm bleeding into the demon world except this time an aura is absent but still forcing the demon world's aura to react."

"That's…different?" Dante said, confused.

"…Yes. It is." With that Vergil reached into himself and flexed his strength. Azure flames spread across his person, bathing him in demonic power. Once the flames subsided in his place stood Vergil's true form; a towering monster of a form covered head to toe in intricate stone grey scales, his chest radiating a cyan glow that spread to his shoulders, harsh jets of the same cobalt energy shot from his arms forming bladelike figures, from two half horns on his head the same energy could be seen. He looked back to Dante, demonic eyes burning with purpose. "Are you coming then?" he said.

"You've really got the hots for whatever this place is," Dante said, feeling his inner demon surface. A crimson flame ingulfed the younger brother, a bulking crimson demon taking his place; jagged plates of hard demonic flesh the color of dark clay pulsed with the boundless energy that hid inside, at his chest the plates all pointed towards his center, a living maelstrom of burning power. Behind him, four wings of smoldering red energy unfurled, the red devil now hovering off the ground. "Guess I'm gonna have to be there to pull your ass out when things get too intense."

Similar wings formed behind Vergil, lifting himself off the ground. "And I you." Vergil said.

In an eruption of force that scorched the once silver fields into burning planes of red and blue, the two most powerful beings in the underworld sped off to the source of the unusual energy.

_**RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR**_

It took the twins minutes to reach the sight of the rift, the far end of the obsidian canyon that once lay before them. If what Dante had sensed moments ago were whispers in the ambient energy, those whispers were now shouting in a high shrilled voice. The ambient energy where they landed felt almost alien to him. In a flash of crimson, he returned to his human form and held his hands to his head, covering his ears. "Well Vergil, this is going swell," he said under strained breath, "I don't know how, but this thing makes my soul wanna puke."

As Vergil landed, he strained himself under the presence the rift was emitting. "Like a nozzle to a hose, the pressure from the rift against this world feels like enough to drive away any lesser demons," he clenched his Yamato, energy bathing the blade in cobalt, "With us that makes four immense sources of power, the pressure is nauseating." Vergil ingulfed his blade with even more power, dipping deeper into his strength, until the glow of the blade intensified to that of the jets from his body. "Enough of this nuisance."

"That's something we can both agree on," Dante said before pacing around Vergil, "So, how do we do this? Should I start punching it while you kick?" a moment later Balrog had adorned Dante's arms and legs.

Vergil drew his blade, easing into a readied stance. "Move aside." Vergil said.

"You're no fun," Dante chuckled, dismissing his devil arms, "Well, what are we even doing here anyway?"

"This is a strange anomaly." Vergil started, "As if someone tore through reality here but didn't properly close the entry."

"And that's bad?" asked Dante stepping beside his brother.

"It's sloppy." Vergil replied, "I will simply reopen the wound and close it properly."

Dante clapped his hands together in a false swoon. "Aren't you charitable."

"Above all else, I am a man of my art," Vergil raised the Yamato horizontally above his head, "And I will not accept sloppy work."

Dante watched his brother imbue the Yamato with more power. In two swift motions Vergil left two bisecting cuts in the air, opening the rift. The force of the opening rift caught both of them off guard. Dante was pushed back into the rock formations behind him sending obsidian and brimstone toppling over him. Vergil, still in his demonic form, was able to resist. He stood his ground against the energy, wings tucked and feet planted. He raised his hands toward the erupting rift as he reached with his power for the portal he had created. Blue flames erupted into a vortex around him. The spiraling column spread toward the rift, clashing against it. "_**I WILL NOT BE CHALLANGED BY A THING OF MY OWN MAKING**_" Vergil growled, his voice tearing through the air. He felt the boundaries of the portal coming back under his command, unruly and furious with a life of their own. He poured more into forcing the portal to yield, a tornado of blue flame clashing with the invisible eruption. More and more, the portal submitted to his control, the pressure's force receding.

When he thought he had the portal under control, Vergil tried to regain his strength. The power the qliphoth, granted him had been immense and after the usual skirmish it would only be seconds before he was completely recomposed, but this time things felt different. In the second it took him to realize the difference he could already feel his energy being pulled into the portal. Behind him, chunks of obsidian were being shrugged off by the dazed devil hunter. Vergil looked back to his brother, "Dant-!" was all he could manage before the force of the portal pulled him in.

Dante stood rubbing the soot and dust from his eyes. He made his way through the chunks of rubble and debris from the blast towards the now open and stable portal, a swirling wisp of cyan light encompassed with deep blue and black energy. "I said I'd pull your ass out of the fire," he said, dusting off the rest of the rubble from his jacket, "but you just had to go and make it an inferno." He took a moment to sense for his brother's presence. _Jackpot_. That was enough for him. Dante took one last look towards the hellscape's dim sky, taking in the last he'd see of the place for a while. _It was about time for a change of scenery, _he thought, plunging himself into the portal after his brother. _Who knows, maybe we can finally get some pizza wherever the hell this leads._

**QVDQVDQVDQVDQVD**

Dante let the flow of the portal lead his body through the swirl of blinding blue energy that made the gate. Of all the hell gates he had been though he could tell his brother had made this one. _Something prickly and brittle about it,_ Dante thought, _very like him. _A sudden jerk from the flow of the gate brought him out of his thoughts. Like a rope to a raft, something had grabbed hold of his presence in the gate and was guiding him. A flash of white light and the reintroduction of gravity later and Dante was falling down onto his back. In his confusion he managed to catch a glimpse of a cobalt portal closing above him, the energy dissipating into the air. His back meeting with the hard ground pulled his attention to his surroundings. He was in an oddly familiar canyon. The same black obelisks and boulders were seen lining the sides of a cliff face that stretched as far as he could see. "Th-there you." A faint voice said.

The younger brother turned, lifting himself off the ground, to find his brother back in human form struggling to stand. The exhaustion plainly writen on his face caught Dante off guard. "Well Vergil," he said, turning away, "I wasn't expecting to have to rescue you right off the bat, but here we are." He turned and took a knee, a hand reaching for his downed brother.

Vergil managed to slap his hand away from him. "I," using the Yamato for support he struggled onto one knee, "am not," he dragged he leg forward to support himself, "so feeble," using the Yamato as a cane he brought himself upright, standing tall over Dante, "as to need your pity yet, Dante." Dante shook his head and got back onto his feet, a tired but satisfied look on his face. He turned back around to really get a look at hi surrounding. From what he could tell the canyon they were in now was an almost exact copy of the one they just left. The only differences in the sky having become a cloudy dawn with birds here and there.

As his brother looked to the sky, Vergil caught his breath. The strain from opening the portal was expected. With how much he had to cut through and with such force was enough power to cut the qliphoth three times over on his own. He felt himself leaning on the Yamato for support, his hands clenched against the hilt. For all the strength he had gained after all his trials he felt none of it, instead a vast empty well damp with the dregs that remained. He tried to ease off of the sword and felt himself bend against his own weight. _Pathetic, but enough._ He tested his strength, small steps leading to a normal stride until he found he could bear a steady pace. _Time. Patients. My power will return. _In a flash of red and white Vergil's thoughts were cut off. Now in the middle of the canyon's enclosure Dante had summoned his Dr. Faust and Cavalier. He watched as his brother tore up the turf, the red scarf of Faust trailing in the wind behind. He charged forward on Cavalier at full speed and hoisted himself into the air, spinning the demonic motorcycle around himself a number of times, all the while laughing.

After a successful landing, Dante brought around Cavalier to Vergil. "Come on, brother," he said, "the sky is still fair, no different." The older brother instead kept his gaze to the cliff face. "Fool" he said. Dante brushed this off with a twirl of his hat, spinning it on his finger. "So, what are we waiting for then? Coming to this place was your idea. Did you bring us here to stare at some rocks?" he said.

Vergil snatched the hat from Dante's finger. "We," he said, clutching the hat, "were not supposed to be here…" he stared uncomfortably at his younger brother as what he said sank in. For a moment he could see what looked like concern cross Dante's face before a more confused expression set in. "What?" Dante said.

Vergil tossed his hat back at him, aiming for his face. The younger brother caught it in one hand and dismissed it and the scarf. "What that means," Vergil said, waving his hand around to their new surroundings, "I am not sure, we could be anywhere thanks to that gate acting up."

"Ok, so just open up another portal, right?" Dante said.

Vergil pressed the Yamato's hilt to his forehead and closed his eyes, concentrating on his power. It had barely gained back any of his strength. A single leaf compared to the once very full branches he had sway over. Nowhere near enough to create a proficient demon portal. But Dante couldn't know that. "Creating a portal to the demon world is much more complicated than you think, Dante. We would need to understand this world's connections with the domains of the demon world, locate a weakness in the fabric of reality, find the right material to create a gate that can sustain it, and force a demon to act as the gate's power source. In other words," Vergil said, he removed the Yamato from his forehead and brought it down to the ground, the echoing thud rang through the canyon, "We may be stuck here for a very long time."

"So, you can't just," Dante mimicked a draw style attack, "do one?"

"No." Vergil lied.

"Well, that's too bad. I would have loved to see something like that." A voice said, echoing from the canyon.

The two brothers turned to face the newcomer, their guns and blade drawn. From behind one of the boulders near the two, a man in a grey dress shirt with a large blade on his back stepped forward, taking a swig from a flask. "Fellas, please. I'm just here to ask you two a couple of questions." the man said.

Vergil raised his blade. "Who are you and why are you here?" he demanded.

"Hand over the flask!" Dante added, adding annoyance to Vergil's frustrations.

"What, no." the man said, stowing the flask in a secret pocket. "The name's Branwen as far as you're concerned," he drew his blade, a large grey claymore with a segmented blade, "I've been watching that blue sphere thing for a few days now. It's just my luck that on my last day of babysitting that thing does it spit out two shady characters." With a whirring of gears the blade of his sword split open to reveal a dark barrel hidden inside. He pointed the barrel at the two and walked closer. "My turn; how are you two related to the blue sphere and why did it disappear?"

"Our business is none of your concern." Vergil said. He took a step towards the man with his Yamato aimed back.

"Come on man," Dante said holstering Ebony and Ivory, "No reason to have this fight."

Branwen brought his gaze to the red clad of the two with a raised eyebrow. "The Breaking was enough reason to make an enemy of all of Remnant, buddy. You're lucky I'm the only one who found this place," He said, "otherwise you'd have the whole of the Atlesian military bearing down on you."

Dante met the man's gaze with a grin while easing his hand back onto his back holster. Branwen shifted the barrel towards him, following him as he moved. "What do you think you're doing?" he said, "I'm not playing around here."

"Oh really?" Dante said, circling around the man with lazy steps, "I didn't hear you say 'don't move' so I'm not doing nothing." He held a grin towards the man while holding his foot above the ground. As he set it down, he pulled his hand from behind his back, thumb and pointer out in a mock pistol. The eruption from Branwen's shot thundered though the canyon sending nearby crows to flight. All of the pellets fond their mark as they slammed into Dante's chest, the force sending him a few feet before landing onto his back.

Before Vergil heard the revving of gears, he saw the blade of a scythe swing down towards him. He had seen the attack well enough, considered parries and counters, planned an effective block, and began to move to execute, but the speed and power he acted with was not fit for one titled of dark slayer_._ He barely managed to catch the blade with his own, the force almost bringing him to his knees. He caught his blade with his other hand in time to support it as Branwen barred down on him. "What is this weakness?" Vergil said struggling to resist.

"That was a pretty weak aura for all that talk," Branwen said locking eyes with Vergil. "Couldn't even feel it. You just as disappointing?"

Dante sat up and watched the two men test each other, the wound and fabric already healed. "You ok there, Vergil?" Branwen looked back to see Dante no worse for wear before breaking away from Vergil and avoiding a retaliating slash from the Yamato. Dante strolled towards Vergil, the massive Devil Sword Dante on his shoulder, and leaned in to face his exhausted brother. "You don't look so hot, brother." he said.

Branwen aimed his barrel at the two. "So, is that your semblences; playing dead?"

Vergil pushed Dante aside, hoisting himself up strait. "I am in no need of your coddling." Vergil said.

"Come on, Vergil. You've been acting kinda off since we got here." Dante said.

"There is nothing wrong!" Vergil said, refusing to look at his brother.

"You two making out over there?" Branwen called, "Pretty hot."

Vergil thrust his Yamato forward, the force behind it carrying him towards Branwen in a blue stinger. "SILENCE!" Vergil growled. As he flew closer to his target, he felt a vague yet familiar energy enveloping him. An absence of energy that pulled at him just enough to influence his actions. Vergil watched as the Yamato sailed right beside the man's head, completely missing and himself right in front of his target.

"That's some bad luck you got there." Branwen said before pulling the trigger.

**QQQQQQ**

Dante watched his brother land onto the ground, writhing in pain. A deep cringe covered his brother's face while he clutched his damp shirt, red with blood. Vergil's normal stern voice gave out to sharp gasps for air, sucking in air in harsh rasps. A blank mask covered Dante's face as he stood over his brother. His devil sword grew hot under his grasp.

In a red haze Dante tricked in front of Branwen. He took a shot at point blank range unflinching. He grabbed the man by the collar, swatting his weapon out of his hand, and lifted him into the air only to be thrown back into the ground. A strange shimmer erupted around the man as he hit the floor. "What did you hit my brother with? I'll only as this once." Dante said. The man gasped for air as he rolled onto his side. The red demon hunter stood over the man clutching his sword. "Nothing—the same thing I shot you." he gasped. Above Branwen two blades burned into existence, each looking as if they were forged entirely of flames. They spiraled over him; tips pointed towards his chest.

"Don't move." Dante said before disappearing in the same red haze.

He reappeared next to his brother, still clutching his chest. "Ok, Vergil. Everything's going to be alright. Just—". Dante was cut off from Vergil's sudden outburst, "Where," he bellowed, "is my power!"

Vergil felt every raw spasm in his chest as he felt his body finally start to recover from the wound. Pellets fell to the sandy floor of the canyon as flesh and cloth began to fix itself. A miracle to most felt like agenizing torture at its current pace. What would have been healed in seconds for Vergil at full strength then now had only just begun. He gripped his Yamato, bearing the indignity was one thing. Having been defeated by a mere human another. But, above all else, being brought so low in front of his younger brother was unbearable. Vergil cut into the fabric or reality bellow him, falling in. He turned to face his brother one last time. He saw the Dante reaching down towards him, hand outstretched. Before it could reach into the portal, Vergil swung at his open palm. It left a shallow cut barely making it through the gloves his brother wore. "Pathetic." He said before the portal closed in front of him.

**QQQQQ**

Qrow was on the edge of consciousness dabbling towards unconsciousness when the man in red came into view again. He stood over him, gaze fixed and eyes steady. Qrow was lifted up by his collar and brought face to face. He wasn't sure if he'd been unconscious for long, but the man in front of him now seemed like a different person. Two more burning blades came to be behind him. The sword on his back burned with a n intense red glow.

"Who is your boss? Where can I find them?" The man said, anger and urgency boiling in his throat.

Qrow's head rested on his shoulder, eyes barely able to see Dante though his drooped spikey hair. He held his tongue. Instead, using the time to read his opponent. Underneath the thin mask of stoicism was frustration already seeping through the cracks. Dante's shoulders were tense, his eyes fixed on his face, hands holding him up trembling. If he wanted to get out of this alive Qrow was going to have to make a very dangerous gamble. "What, killing your brother already got you on the verge of tears?" Qrow said while bringing his hand onto Dante's to support himself, "Why don't you go run home to mommy before you get yourself into more trouble then its worth." That seemed to do the trick. Qrow felt himself being lifted up and pushed back into the ground. When he felt the man loosen the grip on him, he pushed away from the man's for all his worth, tearing his shirt in the prosses, and performed a trick of his own. Before he hit the ground, he twisted his body over with his arms outstretched, closed his eyes and reached into himself for his power. Qrow had pulled this trick off plenty of times in the past before, what made it so useful in a situation like this, was that it ran on magic instead of aura. In an instant he felt his bones become lighter as they shrunk down, cloth turning to feathers allowing the force of the throw to fuel his escape, the air lifting his corvine form up and away from his would-be captor.

He had put almost a mile between himself and the canyon before feeling any kind of relief. A crimson eruption of light filled the dim night sky, giving everything below him a red glow. The lights dimmed; in their absence an eruption of noise tore though the sky. Before he could look back Qrow felt something incredibly dense and hot grab him out of the sky with stunning speed. Black feathers began to smoke, the smell of burning feathers filling the air. A low growl brought Qrow back to his senses. "_**Change back"**_ it said.

Qrow turned his head to see his attacker. For all he had expected nothing had prepared him for what he saw behind him. Clutching him in one hand and wielding a massive sword in the other was an obelisk of fire and brimstone. Large ram horns adorned his head, jaws filled with jagged fangs. A bulking figure in every way, the beast holding Qrow held itself in the air with two pairs of large bat-like wings. Steal and stone twisted around its body like armor with a living inferno at its core, wreathing the monster in an ever-burning fire. Of all the nightmares Salem had let loos on Remnant Qrow had never failed to outwit, outfight or outrun. Staring up at the creature before him, he truly felt trapped. He felt fear.

Qrow changed back to his human form, feet dangling and wrists held tight in the monster's grasp. "_**Boss. Who?**_" the creature said. Qrow bit his tongue watching the creature, it's stone like face gave nothing to tell. An eerie silence fell between the two. The wind beat against Qrow's clothes as the demon burned bright in the black sky. The silence was broken when the demon's sword fizzled out of existence. In its place, a swirling orb of dark energy took form. Qrow could feel the heat of it even before the demon brought it closer to his face. It didn't take long for him to be drenched in sweat, the heat from the orb threatening to burn. "_**Who!"**_ the demon roared.

Qrow barred the heat through grit teeth. The blinding light off of the orb mixed with the stink of his own steaming sweat became the least of his problems, feeling the searing pain of a stone hand clasped around his wrists. "Come one then! This all you got?" he yelled, "Ha! Don't get so cocky!"

For the briefest moment a crack flew cross the demon's face. A mix of emotions that could only be read by the slightest shift of its jaw. The small inferno died down to Qrow's relief, the hand holding him becoming cooler. Qrow felt them descend, flying back into the canyon. When he was let go he collapsed to the floor, exhausted and sweaty. When he looked up again to his captor, he saw the familiar red clad demon hunter standing above him, no weapons drawn, not even looking at him. Instead, he walked over to pick up the scythe blade from the ground, walk back and offer a hand. Qrow tried to read the man's face, dulled eyes punctuating an empty expression. He thought he knew those eyes from somewhere but he couldn't place it. He took the man's hand and got up.

"Look," Dante said, "I just want to get my brother back." He offered the blade to Qrow. "I got him back a couple of weeks ago. Thought he was dead for a while. Was pretty sure too."

Qrow took the Harbinger from him, keeping it in its scythe form. "And what's this got to do with my boss?" he said.

"You said your people found this place first, right? How'd they do it?" Dante asked.

Qrow eyed the man for a moment. "So, that blue sphere thing was your brother's work?" he said, "That thing hurt allot of people, you know."

Dante rubbed the back of his head as he looked around them. He could barely make out the man's face in the dark but he could feel his stair. "He's usually really good with portals and stuff. There was something off about the portal that brought us here anyway. He tried fixing it but he got sucked in."

Qrow pulled out his flask from underneath his dress shirt. He unscrewed the cap and with a sigh, took a swig and offered it to Dante. Before he could take it, Qrow pulled the flask back. "Before I can really trust you, you need to tell me something," he said. Dante gave him a nod. "Ok. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what that big red thing was earlier. Nearly burned my face off, allot of power there," he offered the drink to Dante in earnest this time, "so why hold back?"

Dante chuckled taking the flask. "You got guts. Who could hate a guy with guts?" he said, unscrewing the cap. After one long swig he tossed the flask back. "More importantly; I could never stand that kind of thing. My soul was telling me to find my brother, but it told me to put you down too."

Qrow wasn't sure what to make of the man. He was good enough with reading people and everything about this guy said he was being honest. With all that power he had, sending someone like that to your allies could mean the end if you didn't play your cards right. Qrow let out an exhausted sigh before pulling out his scroll. The translucent screen lit up his face in the darkness as he began typing a message. "Ok." He said.

Dante stepped closer to Qrow looking towards his screen. "Ok?" he said back.

Without looking up Qrow turned and stepped away, stowing Harbinger and blocking Dante's view of his scroll in one motion. "Your name's Dante, right?" Qrow asked.

"Yup." He replied.

"Alright, Dante. This problem is way above my paygrade. I'm telling my 'boss' what's up. He'll help you from there." Qrow said, shutting his scroll.

Dante let out a sigh of relief. "Awesome!" Dante said, "Where is he?"

"There's a dock a couple of miles west from here. If you take a ship leaving for Vail it should take you a couple of days to get there." Qrow started. Dante raised his hand up, interrupting his explenation.

"No, no. Just point to it. Vail, right?" Dante said, bouncing on his feet.

Qrow stared at Dante for a moment before turning his hand northward. "Yeah. Once you get there, you're gonna want to head for Beacon academy. Ask for Ozpin, he's the boss."

"Got it, thanks allot." Dante said. A burst of crimson energy filled the night. Towering over Qrow was the monster of a form that once held him. Wings outstretched filled with an energy that lit the surroundings with a soft glow. "Wait!" Qrow shouted. The form turned to look down at the huntsman, a stair Qrow had to suppress a cold shudder from. "I also got a favor to ask. I need you to get a message to Ozpin for me; the queen has pawns. The one who got the maiden. He'll know."

Dante nodded his head and took to the skies, following the direction Qrow had pointed out. Qrow watched him ascend, climbing into the clouds. In an eruption of speed and sound the demon hunter was off, leaving a red streak of energy behind him. "That's allot less subtle then I thought it was gonna be," he said to himself, "Just my luck." As if on cue, a low growl came from the edges of darkness surrounding Qrow. Grim prowled from the shadows towards him, glowing red eyes filling in. _Yeah, that's about right, _he thought. The gears spinning to life within Harbinger beckoned the creatures forward as Qrow began the rest of his already long night.

**VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV**

In one of Vale's many back alleys; threads of blue light seep out from a newly opened portal, Vergil spilling out after. The stain of opening a portal washes over his already exhausted body. From a nearby dumpster a nauseating spill of rotten milk and tomato sauce great him, soaking into his clothing. He lays there, gazing up at Remnant's shattered moon. Above the grime and pain and exhaustion there is only one thing running through his mind.

_**Power. I need more POWER.**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello today! Sorry for the delay. Just a heads up, but I couldn't find much information on Shade academy while writing this part so the intro sequence might be inaccurate as the show continues. It shouldn't be too important to the plot but just in case I may come back and edit it to reflect the show more accurately in the future.**

Shade Academy was as impressive as any of the other three combat schools of Remnant. To the untrained eye, the outside would look like the center of worship of serpents and sky gods; its towering layers of stone and steal raised high above the buildings bellow. To the people of Vacuo Shade Academy could be as good as a palace; providing the closest thing to a central government meant they had to play by their rules and pay their dues. To the other three kingdoms Shade Academy was the rowdy school they had to share their nice and shiny toys with every now and then.

To Headmistress Sombra, Shade Academy was an institution built too large to properly repair and an office that only brought her headache. She sat on the balcony outside of her office watching the clear evening sky turn to night. How the glow of the city below hummed with life and chatter, even in the late hours, always brought a smile to her tired face. Even with the new class of students behaving more disenfranchised from the rest of the world she could still find some peace in the moment. As she gazed below a faint glimmer of light caught her eye to the west. Far across the desert the faint red light grew brighter and brighter. '_No plans for a light show tonight,'_ she thought, cupping her hands to better see into the darkness beyond the city. Before she could think to do anything else; her city, the sky and Shade Academy itself were bathed in a deep crimson light. In the heartbeat she had the closest look of anyone to what was causing it. To those bellow her, a red streak scorched the night's sky as bright as day. To Sombra, the jagged horns with stretched wings and eyes burning back into hers were enough to put the seasoned headmistress's worst nightmares to shame, and with another heartbeat it was gone. The thing continued to fly northeast across the sky; its path a trail of red following close behind. In its absence the streets bellow had become still. And then the sky erupted.

It came in low, a bellowing roar that rattled the ground. The glass walls lining the Headmistress's office shattered under the strain. Covering her ears did its best to dampen the least of it, but at its peak she could feel the shaking in her bone; her aura nearly giving out. As her hearing came back to her the confusion from the streets and the blaring from her office phones were her next problem. The outdated phone network they still had in Vacuo had become crowded with calls of distress, fear and complaints. All department heads now trying to contact Sombra for some kind of clarity in the situation. On the floor of her once tranquil balcony Sombra was trying to make a call of her own. A man who she had resented relying on but had trusted her enough to bring her into his cabal. After three rings there was an answer.

A woman's voice she hadn't heard in months greeted her. "Hello Headmistress Sombra, it's been too long. How are yo—,"

"Goodwitch, listen to me!" Sombra lifted herself from the floor, "Ozpin, where is—, never mind. I think something is happening. Tell Ozpin to watch the waters between Vacuo and Vale. There isn't much time." Over her scroll, Glynda could hear the ringing of old phones as the number of callers grew. She felt her breakfast weigh heavy in that moment as on her own scroll new alerts began to sound. She opened the display to see three new messages; one from the naval marine biological observatory, and two from Ozpin's contact in the air traffic control center for Vale. Skimming the messages all brought different news, but with the same conclusion: something fast and bright has upset the migratory patterns of grim and fauna throughout the waters between Vacuo and Vale.

"Goodwitch— Goodwitch, are you there?" Sombra's voice calling from Glynda's phone brought her back to the present, "Look. If you can hear me just make sure Ozpin gets wind of this. I need to attend to my own problems." With that, Sombra ended the call leaving Glynda standing outside of the boardroom.

**OGOGOGOGOOG**

It had been only ten minutes since Glynda had interrupted Ozpin's meeting and already there had been five more messages and three calls regarding the _"Red Streak."_ The two were riding the elevator to Ozpin's office; both talking over the now constant buzzing of the scroll.

"And here I was hoping we could settle our dust shortage problem with the suppliers this weekend." Ozpin said staring at his scroll. The newest message had been from contacts along Sanus's shore.

"Live fire exercises have been reduced enough to make it into next quarter," Glynda replied, reading the current news feeds, "More sightings along the cost. Have you heard from Ironwood yet?"

"He says he already has an entire fleet ready and I'm not sure if he is joking or not."

"Knowing Ironwood, it would be best to assume he's being modest."

"Let us hope for the sake of the people that he is not," Ozpin said, the elevator arriving at the top of the tower.

In moments, displayed on the viewing screens were news reports of the Red Streak's progress alongside Sanus. Articles with titles such as: _A New Mutation of Grimm; UFO sightings from Vacuo; and Vacuo's secret super weapon?_

"Ah, the fruits of high-speed communication." Ozpin said before taking a sip of coffee. Glynda swiped at the main screens pulling up the reports from Ozpin's informants along the coast and a map of Sanus focused on the body of water between the two academies. Using her scroll, she marked all of the reported sightings; the most recent placing the streak a few nautical miles before Patch.

"Ozpin," Glynda said while walking over to the glass walls of the office, "I think I'm seeing a pattern here." Ozpin closed his scroll before taking a place beside Glynda.

"Yes, I think we should be seeing him now." Ozpin said, taking another sip of his coffee.

"Wha—" Glynda felt her voice catch in her throat when she looked back through the southwest window. The morning sky had been a dark one that day; clouds rolled in from the east carrying light rain. The accompanying fog that came in from the sea settled bellow cloaked Vale in shades of grey and white; an ideal sleepy morning Glynda could appreciate with hot tea indoors. Now, the distant fog had filled with a soft red glow that grew steadily with every second.

**DDDDDDDDDDDD**

The shocked face of the old woman Dante had seen was stuck in his head until he reached the fog drabbed coast of Vale. With a tinge of guilt, he eased into a nice sub-supersonic speed. The sonic boom he'd carried across the water finally catching up didn't help his guilt; neither did the resulting alarms and commotion bellow. Carrying on, the fog swept away before him making it easier to see the buildings bellow. In the quick glimpses he got, Vale seemed like any other city from his world. Factories and highways followed up a river until they were replaced by smaller shops and houses, and at the end of the longest river was Beacon Academy. _'Just like birdman said.'_

Dante lined himself up with the circular window at the top of the highest tower. Bringing himself back to human, he felt the cool morning greet him for the seconds he sailed towards the window. He pulled out Ebony and Ivory for a lazy rainstorm against the glass just before breaking through, tucked himself forward for a quick spin and landed with his feet skidding to a stop on the opposite wall, elbow already propped to lean against it. "Man," he said, looking to the two other occupants in the room with a smiled, "got to love inertia."

Seconds passed with not a word spoken between the three standing in the room. Dante watched the two others look him with a focus that rivaled Vergil; both wearing different masks. The woman's face held a practiced smile like a shield trying to cover the nerves in her eyes. She tucked her unraveled bangs back in place. The man lowered himself back into his chair with a smile. A furrowed brow relaxing into a steady gaze as he eased off the grip on his cane. He cleared his throat, and with a sip from his cup said, "Yes, welcome Dante."

"Yup, I'm Dante." he said, taking in the room. Large, empty and with allot of windows. Three traits Dante had seen time and time again in his line of work. _Defiantly a big boss_. He walked forward. "That must make you Ozpin."

"Indeed."

"Your buddy sent me, but I guess he told you that too?"

"Yes," Ozpin said, lifting up his scroll from the table, "Qrow has informed me on a number of things."

"Great, I was worried I was gonna have to do the whole introducti—"

"Let me be clear," Ozpin said, an even tone smoothing out the frustration, "Qrow has informed me that a very powerful being named Dante would arive looking for help. He said that this person could be a potential ally; one that has shown restraint and empathy when dealing with power." Ozpin turned the screen towards Dante; reports on the 'Red Streak' occupying the screen with articles on displaced grimm attacks all along the coastline. "Instead, I see recklessness. A recklessness that has once again endangered my people and brought them panic and fear." He stared at the Dante, his eye's the only thing giving a hint of unpleasantness.

Dante leaned on the table with one hand. He held the Ozpin's gave with his own and smiled. "Sounds like you got allot on your plate there, ," he said, letting himself take a seat on the edge of the desk, "and although you've got my sympathies, you're gonna have a hell of allot more problems if you don't help me out."

Ozpin stood from his desk staring down at the devil hunter. "It would be wise not to underestimate us?"

A shift in the corner of his eye caught Dante's attention; Glynda had steadied her hands on a riding crop she had hidden behind her, now out and at the ready. Dante let out a sigh after watching the two stiffen in anticipation. He tossed his legs onto the table and stretched. The resounding thud had the two tensed and ready to spring, both pointing crop and cane in his direction. "Ha ha, got you two wound up something fierce, don't I?" he laughed. "No, that's not a threat. That's a warning." He gestured them forward while crossing his legs. "If my little walk gave you the spooks you're going to hate what my brother might do to the place."

"Something worse then endangering an entire coastline?" Glynda said.

Dante pinched the bridge of his nose wondering how Morison deals with it all. "Look, I'm sorry, ok? But I didn't see any kind of demons or grimm or whatever kind of monsters you have. Now, are you gonna listen? Because your world could be at stake here."

Glynda and Ozpin looked at one another. Dante watch the two have their silent argument. His eyes halfway through an articles on the screen when the two finally spoke. "Alright, Dante. You have our attention." Glynda said. "However," Ozpin added, "We will need to ask a few questions of our own."

Dante closed the article, moving on to the next. "How's about this: we go one for one on questions, see where that takes us?"

Ozpin brought himself back to his seat with his scroll in hand. "Very well," he said, "who are you, Dante? Where did you come from?"

"Me? I'm a devil hunter from Earth, defended it a couple of times from a demonic invasion." he said waiving it off. "My turn, what did you use to locate the portal in that canyon?"

"Invasion of-." Ozpin stopped himself from pressing on before continuing. "Locating the shattering's origin point was the combined effort of luck and teamwork," Ozpin said. "And how is your brother related to this portal?"

"He fixed it; tried to at least. He got pulled in so I came in after him," Dante said. "This team, think they could do it again?" He tapped on the translucent screen testing its solidity. He closed an article he was in the middle of reading.

"That is something we would need to discussed with them," Ozpin said. "Is your brother a so-called devil?"

"Yes, we are, but that's not why he's dangerous," Dante said, standing up from the table. "My brother's not in good shape right now, but getting us here must have takin allot out of the guy."

"And this is a problem for us?" Glynda asked, crossing her arms.

His brother twisted in pain on the floor was still a sour memory. The sight of Redgrave city turned into the mass graveyard even more so. Dante slid off the desk and walked towards the window. Outside the fog filled the streets from the waterfront. "Vergil could make it a problem. He's dangerous when he's motivated. He's been getting better lately," he turned back to Ozpin, "but I wouldn't put it past him yet."

Ozpin watched the devil hunter take another seat by the window. "Dante," he began, "I commend you on your efforts to warning us of this threat, despite the repercussions. However, I can't promise that we will be able to find your brother." With a flick of his finger, Ozpin sent an image to the screen. "And, you see; if you two are the ones responsible for the shatering then you may not want us to find him. Look here," he said, gesturing to the screen, "The blue sphere, your brother's energy, and the many attacks from grimm have not gone unnoticed. All heralded by this." A single article was seen on the screen when Dante came to read it. **Mysterious shockwave engulfs all of Remnant. Thousands reported having aura broken. Millions affected Casualties growing**.

"That. That's bad?" Dante asked, confused.

A slow glare came upon Ozpin. "Yes, Dante. Having the whole world have their aura's broken is bad," he said. "Some call it the shattering, some the breaking. And now you are telling me this unstable individual is somewhere on Remnant?" He folded his hands across his lap. "Dante, how will you deal with him if you find him? Because I know if my people get to him first, you may not agree with our hospitality."

"We were going to leave this world, I guess," Dante cleared his throat, "through a portal."

Distaste added itself to Ozpin's face. "A portal like the one you came here on?" He held his hand up cutting Dante off. "Dante, I feel our worlds have a great many things different. Your powers, your monsters and your devils are hard to grasp the reality of. But I hope there is one thing we may both understand, and that is justice." He drew in a breath, the frustration making way for focus. "Tell me, have you stood against him before?"

He looked to his palm; his brother's cut long since healed. "Yes."

"And won?"

"Plenty."

"Yet, he has managed to cause devastation on a grand scale all under your watch."

He stood silent; his hand clenched in front of him. Bright blue eyes stared from the dirtied stillness of his face.

"What will you do this time then, Dante, if you find him? If we find him first? If he is already—." Ozpin stopped; the light in the man's eyes waivered, giving way to dull rebellious glare. One Ozpin hadn't seen in so many lifetimes.

Dante walked back to the window. In an eruption of electricity, a grey clad motorcycle took form beside him, engines filling the office. "I'll let you know when I figure that out," he said. "You better get that team of yours ready, if you're hunting a devil, you're in for one hell of a fight." He propped one wheel of his bike over the window and looked back to Ozpin. "I'll call you," he said straddling his seat.

"And where do you think you're going?" Glynda said, pointing her crop toward Dante. Ozpin stayed at his desk, caught in the memory of an argument long ago.

Dante revved his engines, looking over the edge. "Sorry Ozzy, but I came here to see if you could help me find my bro. I said my piece and I gave you your reasons," the back wheel spun to life, burning into the floor of the headmaster's office, "but I've got a brother to find and I'm not wasting any more time to play twenty questions." Cavalier burst through the window, shatering the rest of the glass around the broken frame. In a crack of lightning the red rider brought his bike to the side of the tower, energy crackling alongside him all the way down. Glynda watched in wordless shock as the man not only made it to the courtyard in one piece, but then drove the rest of the way off campus. She leant against the remaining glass of the wall, exhausted.

The scorched patch of tiles and marble that marked the devil's departure left an electric burn in the air of Ozpin's office. Glynda's coughing brought the headmaster back to the present. He looked down to his scroll. "Did you get all of that, Ironwood?" he said, his screen turning into the facetime view. "Ozpin, what are we even up against?" Ironwood said from the screen.

"I'm not sure, but I can't help feel as if I've been in this position before." Ozpin said. He went to Glynda to support her, bringing her back to his chair. As she collapsed onto the leather upholstery, Ironwood took his place on the screen. "You tried stopping him, didn't you?" Ozpin said, holding her hand. It was limp in his, a cold sweat beading on her face.

"Yes, put all I had into it," she said out of breath, "I needed to– to let go. It was too much."

From across the office, the elevator let out a soft buzz indicating an approaching cab. Ozpin brought her hand onto the desk before moving toward the approaching company. "Take your rest, I doubt there will be anything more important from today," he said, "Ironwood, inform the other headmasters of what has happened here and schedule a meeting with them. I will need to discuss our dust shortage with you as well."

"Understood, I wanted to talk on the matter as well," he replied, "Till then." With that, the screen blinked out.

Ozpin stood in front of the elevator doors waiting to open, the events of this morning repeating through his head. If there were any better solutions to this current predicament, he would need to look later. He cleared his mind with a steadying breath and put on a pleasant façade for whoever was coming up to meet him. As the doors slide open a familiar voice chirped through. "Hello Professor Ozpin." Ruby Rose said through opening doors. "Hello, Ruby. What brings you to my office—" Ozpin's voice trailed off as he saw the cabin open up to reveal Ruby's companion leaning against the wall; a tall man with white spiked up hair with an all too familiar face. If the black and blue trench coat were any redder, Ozpin would have mistaken him completely. Despite the man's similarity the greatest distinguishing factor was the ominous presence he brought with him.

Sensing the unease from her headmaster, Ruby managed a weary smile and continued, "We came over when we saw that red thing in the sky. Well, it was my new friend's idea actually."

Ozpin met the man's gaze as he limped forward, back bent and supporting most of his weight with a sheathed curved blade. "Hello, professor Ozpin," he said in steady breaths, "you may call me Vergil. I assume you have already met my brother?"

**VRVRVRVRV**

Since falling from the portal, it felt like hours since Vergil moved from his spot on the damp ground of the alleyway. A grey sky spread dim early light onto the dumpsters and trash littered around him. Between the wayfaring moments of unconsciousness, the soaked fabrics of his clothes grew from an annoyance to an infuriating reminder of his helplessness. For all the power he wielded in the past, moving off of the floor was proving to be a greater challenge. Dull aching from the earlier embarrassment turned into burning daggers that rested in his chest where the slugs landed when he tried to sit up. Enduring the pain, he finally managed to prop himself up against the brick wall beside one of the trash piles and collect himself.

With trembling hands, he opened his vest and inspected the wounds underneath. Seven holes were punched through is chest clustering around his mid abdomen. Blood flowed out at a steady pace onto his shirt and pants, more red staining out the blue and black of his attire. Besides minor bruises and cuts, the chest wound was all he had to heal from. His ability to heal from wounds was nothing to scoff at, having carried him through head on duels with his brother, but for some reason the damage he took refused to recover any faster. Pressing himself up against the wall, he tried to stand through the pain. Shaky legs could just manage to hold up his damaged form. The awkward footing and distribution of weight between his feet forced him to stagger. He caught himself with his right side against the dumpster, his left hand gripping around nothing.

A cold sweat held the son of Sparda, the realization echoing throughout his whole body. He turned back towards the end of the ally, red brick and grey pavement leading to a dead end. He dragged himself along the wall to the back, kicking over bags and cans searching for his oldest ally.

"Where is it," he said, staggering over to the adjacent wall.

"Where is it." He fell to his knees, sifting through the debris around him.

"Where- "something underneath a pile of garbage near the back cut his hand. A small thing on top of all his pain. He dug around, tossing wrappers and spoiled food behind him. Shards of a mirror lay underneath, the reflective surface covered in dirt and grime clean enough to show Vergil his face. He stared at his own gaze; light blue eyes on the brink of tears with frost white hair plastered by sweat and soil over a manic fury. No different, he looked no different to himself the day he thought he lost everything.

What felt like a hollow spike drove itself into his heart. He clutched his chest as if holding it would staunch his memories. Running through the back allies of Redgrave city with the Yamato clutched in his arms; the demon hordes laughter at the destruction of his home. He was alone then. Alone and afraid and powerless to do anything. _'I don't wanna die,'_ panicked thoughts raced through his frantic mind_, 'I don't wanna die. I don't wanna die.'_

A cry of rage echoed through the back allies of Vale, Vergil taking the piece of glass and smashing it against the wall. Shards of glass shattered against the brick, imbedding a good number into his left hand. He couldn't deny his pain any further after that. He held his hand and saw the glass piercing through. _'I don't want to die'_.

"Uumm. Excuse me?"

Vergil turned his head to look back, a young woman in a black dress clad in a red hooded cloak held the Yamato to her chest. He brought himself up against the back wall, not taking his eyes off of the new face. When his wounds were in full view, he saw the girl drop all pretenses and move towards him, the unflinching desire to help written so plainly on her face.

"Oh my gosh, don't move!" she said, setting the Yamato onto the ground next to them. She brought her arms underneath his to support his weight. With what remained of his strength, Vergil tried to tear away from her grasp to no avail. His attempts gone unnoticed.

With a ragged breath Vergil spoke, "Why do you have that?"

Her diligent façade faltered for the briefest second "I, I saw it from the street and went to pick it up." A smile quick to recover, she picked up the blade, nearly toppling the both of them over. "It was sooo beautiful; I couldn't just let her sit there. When I went to grab it, I didn't even notice you," another flash of guilt, "Sorry."

He stayed silent, instead holding his hand out expecting his blade back. The girl almost grabbed it in an attempted greeting but managed to see the glass shards before it was too late. Pulling her hand away she cleared her throat and said, "Ahem, I'm Ruby Rose, a Huntress in training at Beacon academy." The words came with a practiced ease. "Can you tell me your name?"

For a few steps he held his silence but relented, "Vergil."

"Ok Vergil, can you tell me what happened to you?"

The strange rift, the man who defeated him, of his life and the unfairness of it all. He stayed silent, instead eyeing the Yamato on the girls back.

"Umm. Th-that's ok. I'll get you out of this dirty ally and call a paramedic. Can you tell me any-"?

"No. No medics. No clinics," he said.

"But you're really hurt. You need to do something."

Tendrils of aching hunger gnawed at the back of his mind. "…food," he said.

"I think you need a little more then-"

He took a shaky step away from the Huntress, freeing himself from her grip but falling to his knees in the process. He grabbed the remaining shards of glass, the smaller pieces already expelled by his body, and pulled them free. "Water. Food. I need to heal," he said.

Ruby knelt beside him, helping him back onto his feet. "Ok, Ok, I think I saw a diner nearby."

**VRVRVRV**

The diner she brought him to was mostly vacant besides an elderly cashier worker and the cooks in the back. The cashier gave the two no more then an odd stair before turning his attention back to his scroll. The diner itself was relatively small with only a handful of booths toward the window and chairs lining the main counter. Ruby sat across the stranger and watched him stare at the two strawberry sundaes she ordered for them. He already inhaled the plate of bacon and eggs and drank three glasses of water. The entire time he remained silent, vigorous eating aside. But when the weightier brought out the smoothies he froze. She looked at the deserts, then to him, then to the cashier eyeing her back, then back to her hands that couldn't seem to decide whether left or right should be on top. She ignored Yang when she said speaking to people was a skill she had to learn, just like any other part of being a huntress. Ruby always figured when someone needed her she would be able to come up with the right words when she needed too. She hoped the person she would need to help now would have started the conversation.

"Th-that's my favorite. Strawberries," she said, hiding behind a smile.

Vergil glanced up, his gaze catching hers.

She looked away. "My sister and I, we would always fight over who would get the last strawberry when we were little. She would always win."

He was staring into his sundae when she glanced back, the solemn expression replaced with a melancholic smile.

"My brother and I would do the same," he said, picking one of the red fruits from the top of his dessert, "no matter who would win, mother would always make us share in the end." He ate the fruit in one bite.

"That's sweet of her. My mom always knew best, too. When she passed, everyone felt so lost without her. I liked holding on to the good times, though." Her hands found their way to the cloak on her shoulders; red cloth held snug around her.

"Were I so wise," he said; more to himself then her. He pointed a finger to the sword laid beside her. "That is all that remains of my father. Of my mother, well, how shall I gather what grief destroy?"

"Oh. Th-thank you?" Her fingers almost went for her hood when she found his puzzled gaze looking back. Scrambling for something to say, she said, "Were they hunters?" taking another scoop of sundae and biting down on the spoon.

"My father, the legendary dark knight. Does the name Sparda mean anything here?" Nerves and tension completely missed by the man.

"I'm sorry, I haven't heard of it." She said, freeing the spoon from her jaw.

"It is…particular to where I come from, I suppose," he said.

"I got in to Beacon to become a huntress like my parents," she said, the lighter topic a relief, "I'm trying to participate in the Vytal festival, too."

"Is this place Beacon?" he said looking out the window.

"No, this is Vale. The city Vale, not the continent. I get that mixed up too." Looking out the window, the mid-morning light filled the streets enough to just barley make out the buildings across the street. "The huntsmen academy is pretty close to where the fair grounds are going to be." she said.

Vergil mulled over his next question before asking. "Will you take me there?"

Ruby didn't hide her surprise well. "Oh, really?" she said, mouth still full from another bite.

"Would that be a problem?"

"No, no. It's just, I was in the middle of looking for my friend." Pulling the roughly drawn picture she kept in her waste bag, she told him who she was looking for.

"And you haven't seen this Penny for a while now?"

"No, not since the breaking. I'm guessing you haven't seen her ether?"

He shook his head. "No. Perhaps you could point me in the direction instead.?"

"I can defiantly to that, but are you sure you're ok to walk again?" she said, eyeing his wounds.

He stood to examine himself, needing the booth to lean on; he was still too weak to stand unaided but his legs were in good condition, what remained of the glass wounds were moderate cuts where the largest pieces landed, his worst part was still his abdomen, the bloodied holes in his vest did a poor job of hiding the wounded flesh. It made it hard to stand up strait and fighting was out of the question, but he could feel some strength coming back to him. "I will be fine in time," he said, hoping time to be on his side.

Moving out of the booth, she held the Yamato out to Vergil. "You must have a really strong healing semblance. No reason you shouldn't have this then."

"My semblance?" he said, taking the blade.

"You know," she said, paying for the meal, "A person's way of defending themselves. Kinda like a special power."

The familiar grain that made the Yamato's sheath felt heavy in Vergil's hand. "Power," he paused in front of the door, a familiar aura closing in, "I suppose that would be one of them."

The two walked out of the diner, Ruby thanking the clerk and leaving a decent tip with the pile of napkins on the seat. Luckily nothing seeped through. The fog was as dense as when they left it for the diner, only getting a bit brighter. Vergil felt the strange aura of the land blowing past him moments before he realized it's cause. The oncoming force bringing him back to his duel on top of the Qliphoth, Teme ni gru and Mallet island. He heard Ruby chirping on about the city's street system when his brother arrived.

"Cover your ears, child," he said, raising a hand to silence her.

"Wha-?"

The world turned red before the buildings around them groaned under the strain the shockwave brought through Vale. Ruby just managed to do what she was told as the eruption of light and noise passed over them. She looked to Vergil; his head pointed towards the sky showing in an amused disapproval. Whatever she was saying fell from her mind when she saw the red streak; a long gash of red, slowly dissipating in the sky. It stretched all the way from beyond the harbor to Beacon Academy. Specifically, the headmaster's office. As it faded color returned to the world.

"Ruby, what is that building?" Vergil asked, pointing to where the streak ended.

When he turned to look for a response, he didn't expect the fear that marked her innocent eyes. She was balled up beside him, her hands covering her head. Taking the Yamato under his left arm, he reached down with his right and held the child's arm. "Are you alright?"

She looked up to him. "I think so."

He helped hoist her back onto her feet, silver eyes still weary of the sky. "Are you alright?" she said, "I know you said you're getting better and all, but the breaking-"

"That building, what is it?" he said again.

She looked past him; the tower could be seen above the roofs around them. Even from this distance the intricate mechanisms of the clock that made up its higher levels were easy to recognize.

"That's Beacon Academy," she said.

The ammusemnet on his face gave way to annoyance. "Typical," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"Thank you, Ruby. You have done much to help me. I am in your debt."

"Oh, you're welcome," she said, cheer and confusion a mix on her face.

"Good luck finding your friend." He turned towards Beacon and started walking.

"W-wait!" she said, following him. "I'm going too."

"I doubt your friend will be there."

"No. I mean," she held the cape at her shoulders, "that thing has to be related to the breaking. If I can help in any way I have to be there."

Vergil couldn't help but grin. What drove him to hell and back burned bright in the girl's eyes. He beckoned her along, Yamato in his left, the wounds there healed enough to ignore. "I'll try not to slow you down," he said.

**DDDDDD**

By seven pm the red streak was still hot on everyone's tongue, everyone except Tony's. He looked around the line of people in front of Junior's club, every single one of them claiming to have had some witness to the morning's event. He could hear them in the crowd:

"Like, I hear there was a monster that caused it and the police are trying to cover it up cuz they don't know where it went," said a woman wearing too much gloss.

"I've been saying dust trails for sooo long. Atlas is going to attack soon and now they have the advantage," said a man to his friend.

"Betty says it's a sign of the end times. Uuhh, something about twin gods and magic. She's such a joker—, oh hi Mark!" said a man with long black hair.

Of all the downsides being one of the only bouncers left to work nightshift, missing big events like this was one of the worst. Start too early, and flash tabloids give out ten different version. End too late, and it's all old news because all of it reached him via gossip osmosis. He let another party in, checking their party name off of the list. He could spot at least two false ID cards from the lot. Thanks to the hefty admission fee they payed in advance he didn't need too.

What sounded like thunder broke over the chatter and brought everyone's attention to a red clad newcomer, the kind of theatrics Tony knew would bring trouble. The new arrival didn't wear a helmet, leaving a mop of white hair covering part of his face. The red leather of the jacket he wore was worn and cracked. Under said jacket, an equally grungy blue long-sleeved shirt clung to his chest. When he hopped off his spikey looking two-wheeler the thing curled up into a ball of sparks and disappeared. Of all the dust imbued gear Tony had seen, he'd never thought a bike could be tucked away like that. He walked up to Tony, the shouts and jeers from the line behind him ignored, and sized him up.

Tony had just about an inch or two on the man, the pride in that fact making it's way across his face. "Name?" Tony said.

"New in town. People tell me this is the best place for the worst kind of people. That sound right to you, buddy?" he said, hands on his hips.

"Name, buddy." Tony said again, getting his aura ready.

"Come on, guy. Can't you show a little hospitality to a new face? I drove all around town looking for a good party."

"If you're not on the list," Tony leaned down, bringing himself and the clipboard to the man's face, "you don't get in."

"Ah, I see," he said bringing the two face to face, "how's about a little something to sweeten the deal?" He rubbed his unkept white stubble and looked Tony in the eyes with a grin.

"I'm listening."

"Atta boy" with that, the man brought his hand onto Tony's face giving him a quick pat on the cheek. Maybe it was the neon red lights of the club, or maybe how close he was to the man that made Tony miss it. But what he didn't see was the soft crimson glow surrounding the tips of the stranger's fingers. The first tap nearly broke his aura. Before he even noticed, the second tap knocked him out.

Dante watched the man wilt, catching him, clipboard and all. The crowed behind him grew silent, then came to life with confused whispers. '_Still too much, huh. Really gotta be gentle here,'_ he thought. "Sorry buddy, I guess you're not ready for the hard stuff yet," Dante said, easing him to the ground.

He scribbled something down and set the clipboard onto the unconscious bouncer, then turned to the people behind him. "Scuse me lady's and germs, but I am sorry to say that the club will not be taking any more people tonight. My good friend here needs a nap and I hate a crowded dancefloor."

After waiving them all of, none seeming to want to pick a fight, he strode in. What looked like shards of glass broke away from the wall beside the unconscious Tony to reveal a small woman touting a light pink umbrella. A bemused smile on her face, she waltzed over and plucked the clipboard up. A large signature covering the rest of the list read: Dante from Devil May Cry. She followed through the doors, pale pink and brown eyes satisfied with what she found.

The club's interior didn't impress Dante. The four pillars surrounding the main dancefloor were covered in white screens that pulsed with the beat of the music. A fast-paced techno grunge pop, something Dante figured the kids would love now a days, was playing at full blast. The walls of the establishment, lined with two bands of florescent lights across, contrasting the lights with a mat black. Spot lights and lasers gave chase to one another across a dancefloor filled with warm bodies, all trying to impress. After he took a seat at one of the empty booths and a few slices of pizza, he told the waiter he couldn't pay for any of it and to bring him the manager. It didn't take long for a big man in a bartender's uniform followed by a few other men to arrive. He greeted Dante with a cautious smile.

"Hello sir, problems paying your fee? he said.

"Yup, the pizza was stale and I asked for no olives so now I reckon you guys still owe me for eating it." Dante said, grinning right back.

The man's smile thinned. "Get the girls," he said to one of the men behind him, "and the batzooka."

Dante laughed, clapping his hands. "Whoohooa, that's one hell of a way to welcome a guests. Guess I should say your lights suck and you got no taste in music too."

"Ok, you're a d—,"

"But let's get down to business, Junior. Talk around town is you're the guy to go to for bad business and I'm lookin'."

Junior stretched out an open hand behind him. "And what do I get out of it?"

"A favor."

"A favor?" His patience getting thinner.

"Big favor, lost my big bro; the kind of guy who gets caught up in this kind of crowd. Figured I'd beat him to the punch this time"

Two girls, both wearing strapless dresses, handed Junior him his 'batzooka'.

"Here, boss" said the girl dresses in red.

"Yeah, like, who is this loser?" said the girl dresses in white.

"I know this place is called Junior's, but hell man," he said, pushing past Junior, "Isn't it past your bedtimes?"

Junior grabbed his shoulder, trying to get him to turn in vain. "L-listen asshole, I don't give a damn if your brothers' missing; I'm not doing shit for free. You've got balls to walk in here and talk shit, but I'm half a mind to beat your unconscious ass to the street!"

Dante shrugged, walking forward into the clearing that formed around his table, the staff already trying to clear the patrons from the club, among the crowd people pulled out their scrolls and tried to record. "Yeah, I figured I'd need to give a little demo. No biggie," he looked at the security team holding the people back and Junior with his girls and goons.

"So, who's first?"

**NNNNNN**

Neo watched the man, Dante, clean up the last of Junior's boys before dusting his hands off. Her heart raced when she found a good pick for Roman's operations. Her instincts said he was cream of the crop even with a weak aura, but to see him in action was an entirely different thing. Having the birds eye view made the entire fight look almost like a dance of red and black; unarmed he could catch and counter anything, take goons out in a single hit and do it all so stylishly. She hopped down from her perch in the lighting rig suspended over the dancefloor littered with the unconscious. She walked up behind him, still cloaked in her illusion of invisibility, when two fingers jabbed into her forehead. Ahead of her, Dante stood facing an unconscious Junior and holding two fingers behind himself. The illusion breaking around her, Neo stepped back, resizing the man up. Power, skill and now this. She held her eyes in check, keeping them from turning white on reflex. Not many people could see through her semblance, those who could she took care off or took care of her. He turned around, still pointing his fingers in her face and smiled. "'Scuse me little lady, wouldn't happen to be a part of the welcoming crew, would you?"

Neo stayed silent, letting him get closer.

They watched each other for a moment, the man keeping his hand between the two of them. He gave her a cheeky smile. Her, a coy glare. Him, a retuning nod. He opened his hand, revealing nothing, and let it drop.

"So, you're not with these guys and you want me to follow you, huh?" he said, "what's in it for me then? Think you could help me find my brother?"

More silence. Keeping her eyes on him, Neo walked back to the front door, beckoning him to follow.

She walked him the few blocks to Roman's recruiting bullhorn. The airship blended into the usual hiding place; she could spot the black bowler hat he was never without sitting at the front of the abandoned warehouse waiting for her to return.

He stood when he saw she brought company, dusting the ashes from his cigar off his pressed white coat. "Neo, there you are," he said, coming over to meet them, "Now tell me, is this really all Junior had left for hired help? We need bulk this time."

Neo glared at him; turning the look into a coy pout.

"Oh, I know 'eye for quality' and all, but we need more than one guy to fill the spaces on this one." He pointed to Dante, "You. Old guy. What's your name?"

Dante folded his arms and replied, "Old? The name's Dante".

"Redcoat here is gonna have to play stage crew and dance to our toon while the animals run the cameras. It's not just a strait up robbery this time. We're making history," he raised his cane into the air, pointing it around to all of the tarps and crates around them.

A glimpse of doubt crossed Neo's eyes before walking over to Dante and standing beside him. She nodded her head towards the white-haired hunter, confident she would do.

"Of course. Never the easy way with you, is it?" Roman said, "Ok, this should be fine. We have a week to get more people, Cinder's been slow enough to add some more to the clock. Old guy, you tough?"

An easy smile came across the man's face. "I don't like to brag. What's this little play anyway?"

"Steal from the Schnee industrial warehouse. Some big toys in stock and even bigger security."

"What kind of toys we walking?"

"New, not even out yet kind of toys," he pointed his cane to the sky, "a full bipedal weapons platform they call the Paladin. Cutting edge stuff, and we're gonna get full dibs."

"Ok, that's not so bad," Dante said, "I'm in."

Roman swung the crook of his cane and shook his head. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. You may have impressed Neo here, but I'm still on the fence."

Neo walked in between the men and tapped Dante on the elbow with her umbrella, getting into a fighting stance.

"Fair," Dante said before bending down to meet her gaze, "Here's the deal-."

Neo left an illusion of herself in front of the man she brought; keeping herself hidden in another.

"For this job I want information in return for my services. Cheap and easy, right?" The man flicked the nose of her illusion and watched it shatter to the floor. Roman took a step back avoiding the pieces.

"Info on what?" Roman said.

Neo launched another illusion at him, posed for a flying kick. Not as much as a flinch came from him as it crashed into his side. "My brother. I'll give you the details you'll need later, but the sooner you find him the more I'll be in your debt."

Raising one hand above his head, Dante caught Neo's boot before it could come down onto him. Neo twisted her body around his arm and swung her other foot over to plant into his face. With the lean of his head and a twist of his wrist, she was tucked under his left side, her legs locked against his arm.

Neo struggled against his grip, trying with all her strength to break the pin he had on her. She'd had a good feeling about this one. Strong and capable enough to take out a club, and now even Roman seemed convinced. In all, she knew she did good by bringing him into the group and that she might regret this. But she did not like being embarrassed. She unlatched the umbrella's false handle, pulling out the hidden thin hidden blade inside. Before the two men could notice she brought the tip of the blade down on the man's chest.

It wasn't supposed to be so easy to stab him in the chest. Neo expected some kind of plated armor or a surprisingly dense aura to warn the man of the blade. It would have been a good hit; leaving at least a nice gash against his chest. When her blade sank into the hilt with blood already leaking onto it, she felt she may have made a bigger mistake then she thought.

The man let Neo fall to the floor. She turned onto her back and crawled towards Roman. The man in red pulled the blade out of his chest without a wince and cleaned it off with his shirt.

"Thanks, I have some peperoni stuck in the back driving me nuts," he said, using the thin blade for a toothpick, "So, we have a deal?"

**Hey all! Thank you for reading all the way through! I hope you enjoyed this part of the fic. I defiantly learned allot writing it that I'll try to be implementing later on. Since we're at the end and you have your own idea of how this part came out, I feel like I can say my two cents on it. I'm new so I know it's nothing great. I feel like I need to work on allot; Characterization and dialogue most of all. I haven't really done a fight scene I'm happy with ether. I rewrote this part allot to try and get the characters to a place I could feel good about. I'm ok with it so far. Dante and Vergil are really fun to write for, but the balance between corny fun and good fun is still being worked on. Like, I almost rewrote it again. I'm forcing myself to stop rewriting it and get on with the story. I hope I did a good job portraying how powerful the two could be, but also how they use their powers. Responsibility and all that. All in all; that's growing pains. Thanks for listening to the brief ramblings of someone on the internet on how they play with their dollies. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello today, sorry for taking so long on this one. I think I've been underestimating how much time I need to put into these. That said, I'll see you at the bottom.**

From atop the recently repaired office of Beacon's headmaster the seven Atlesian airships taxying in the skies of Vale brought a shade of concern to an otherwise clear morning. Ozpin had developed a resistance to the stress of unexpected changes thanks to the many years in his field, the last few days adding to the strangest he'd dealt with. Beside him Glynda watched the arriving fleet occupy their airspace. He could tell she had less practice hiding her displeasure.

"And yet, another grand entrance." She looked to the students caught in the courtyard marveling at the pilling might of Atlas.

"Leading an army and the huntsmen academy would make him a busy man," He noted the growing crowed observing the unloading ships, "at the very least this one is on our side." Behind them the signal for the main office chimed.

"Come in." Ozpin said.

Sliding doors gave way to a man dressed in the white officer's uniform of the Atlesian military, the only nonstandard aspect being a small silver plate over his right eye just bellow his graying hairline. "Ozpin," the man greeted, "It's been too long sense we've gotten together like this."

Ozpin walked over to meet his guest. "General."

"Please, drop the formalities," as the two shook hands, Ironwood eyed Glynda, "It has certainly been too long since we last met."

Glynda walked past him, "James," she said, giving only a glance, "I'll be waiting outside."

"Well, she hasn't changed." Ironwood said.

With the doors shut, Ozpin poured a cup of coffee for the two of them.

"I see these past months haven't changed you, ether."

"It'll take more then the breaking to shake this general. It's certainly made you chattier. Four correspondence since then, that's more I hear from you in a year."

"Trying times." He nodded. "However, that small fleet outside also has me concerned." Ozpin took a sip from his coffee.

Ironwood straitened, squared his shoulders, and let his hands add a touch of Atlesian ail to his drink. "Well, concern is what brought them here." He took a sip of his own.

"I understand. Traveling with spare dust munition for the Vytal festival on top of your own students. And with the travel between kingdoms—."

"Oz. You and I know why I brought those men."

With a sigh Ozpin went to stand behind his desk, setting the cup down onto the tray.

"Despite all that has happened, we are in a time of peace. Shows of power will only send the wrong message."

"But with all that's going on. With the world still grieving for who they've lost. If what Qrow said is true then—."

"Then we will deal with it tactfully."

Silence gave way to the sounds of aircrafts moving in and out of the landing ports; from the headmaster's tower they filled the air with a soft rumble. The newly landed crafts began emptying their cargo when Ozpin broke the silence.

"I understand that I may have made things here seem dire, Ironwood. But, please try not to scare the people."

"Is that why you're keeping him a secret, then?"

"In a way, yes."

Ironwood tensed, stepping forward to set his own cup down. "You're really just keeping him here? Not even putting him in a cage, just letting him do as he pleases."

"As I've told you, there's been an arrangement."

"Ozpin, what more could he hide from us that we need to appease his terms? You already have his weapon."

"Do you suggest force be our next strategy?" Ozpin said. He watched the general take another swig from his flask. "It may seem like a gamble, Ironwood, but we have more to gain even if he manages to flee tomorrow."

Ironwood capped the silver bottle before straitening himself. "And have you already considered what danger this might present to the children; should things go wrong?"

Ozpin felt the weight behind those words compound with the numerous other mistakes he'd weighed himself against. All for the sake of the future. "After all we have accomplished, you know I have," he looked up to his friend, letting the right mix of guilt and fatigue creep through, "always."

As he'd expected, Ironwood looked away. "We do what we must, I suppose. I'll have my men bring the machine in with the dust munitions. I'll send the crate's ID to you once everything is organized."

He settled the tinge of guilt in his chest with curtesy, "Yes. Thank you, Ironwood." Watching the general leave his office, Ozpin pulled up the main display onto his desk. As he'd said, the crate was hidden among the others. Their hopes for the future tucked underneath enough fire power to send it all sky high.

"Thank you very much."

**VVVVV**

The libraries of Beacon housed the accumulated knowledge of generations of hunters and huntresses on the fine art of killing grim and protecting humanity, filling shelves that lined walls and towered over many of the students. Quiet rays of sun fell onto the more abandoned sections. Sections covering what most children learned in their early years of school or what other students found as remedial punishment. To Vergil, being tucked away with plenty to read was a feeling he'd long forgotten. Seeing the library for the first time reminded him of the Sparda mansion's own modest library. Between the walls, writings of all shapes and sizes were held; large leather-bound books on natural and arcane science, scrolls detailing demonic manifestation, books on ancient people and their campaigns with the dark knight. He'd memorized most of the catalog before…then. To be around so much new knowledge made him feel sentimental. Two days since his arrival were enough time to familiarize himself with the lay of the academy, but here Vergil could always find something new.

On the table before him were a number of reffrence books along side a scattering of papers and pens. He was about to continue reading 'Auras and Semblences: The Fundamentals, A Theoretical and Practical Guide' when Ozpin caught the corner of his eye. The look of haste on him, the headmaster of Beacon academy walked in the opposite direction of Vergil; no doubt looking for him.

He thought of his brother stumbling around their library when he looked for someone to play with. He never understood why he couldn't see the value of books. From tactical journals to fighting manuscripts, all the reading he'd tried to get his brother into would be left behind and he would be back with the wooden swords they used to play with. _Always being a bother when I'm getting to the good part._

He thought of letting the man wander the library, himself breaking into his office to take the Yamato and slip away. It would have been a satisfying exersise, but ultimately unproductive. He resolved to calling the man over to finishing things. Thankfully he didn't go far; making a quick return.

"I thought I'd find you here." Ozpin set is cane against the table and sat next to Vergil.

Vergil gave only a glance to the man before continuing with his reading. "You were late." Vergil said, trying to hide the annoyance in his tone.

"Yes. I'm afraid I had some unexpected company. The headmaster of Atlas is a good friend of mine. He had some things that I needed to take care of personally. Although I would recommend waiting instead of leaving without an escort. Gave Glynda quite a scare when she arrived to your room."

"You are not keeping me to waste our time, are you?" Vergil said, taking note of aura channeling.

"No, I suppose not," he said, "But it is a part of our agreement, is it not?"

"As is limiting my access of the library durring your student's school weeks. If you want my report any sooner, I need to be here. Sticking me in a classroom with your assistant and being late for my escort will only delay." Vergil closed the book with a note page holding his place. "Now, may we conduct this morning's briefing?"

Ozpin pulled out his scroll looking almost apologetic to the half demon. "In a moment."

Vergil steadied his hands by reorganizing his papers, wondering how Dante could run a business dealing with humans and their affairs. After a few presses of Ozpin's scroll, Glynda Goodwitch appeared on the screen.

"Ozpin, did you find him?" she said.

The headmaster nodded and pulled the scroll to the side to show Vergil in view. "I have. In the library just as I said he would be."

"Thank goodness. Should I tell security to head over?"

Ozpin paused to glance over to Vergil. "No that won't be necessary. We were just about to have the morning briefing. Would you be willing to have our guest bring some material with him while in your class?" Vergil sat up; his interests peaked.

She gave a nervous glance to their 'guest'. "…of course. Today will be combat training. If he doesn't mind the noise there should be no problem."

Vergil nodded, if he noticed her discomfort, he didn't show it.

"Then it is settled. Thank you, Miss. Goodwitch." Hanging up, Ozpin turned to Vergil. "So, what will you be covering today, Vergil?"

"You…are quite accommodating to an enemy of your people." Vergil said, suspicion easy to read.

He leaned back into his chair, a calm look on him. "As you said; it benefits neither of us to delay your work. Now, you were saying?"

He cleared his throat before speaking. "Today I will be focusing on the conduction and transmutation of aura in the use of your world's magic."

Ozpin looked to the book's cover before understanding. "Our semblences?" Ozpin said, "What of our semblences has caught your eye?"

"You will hear more of it in the report, but for now I can say they make no sense."

A puzzled look came across the man. One Vergil understood.

"The aether of your world is…strange. It is unclear to me how, but I think it is, in part, responsible for my arrival." Reaching into the wisps of strength he'd been able to store over the last two days, Vergil focused them into his hand. As the blue aura appeared, he felt them fizzle into the atmosphere. He was glad to see Ozpin taking the demonstration in strides, moving closer to observe the reaction.

"My power, call it magic or semblance, is being affected by something in this world. Once I have a better understanding of what that is; I can better cooperate with our agreement."

"Fascinating." Ozpin looked closer to Vergil's hand. "Magic. In Remnant."

Vergil dismissed his power with a flick of his wrist and returned it to the desk. "Yes, fascinating. Now, I'd like to get back to work."

Ozpin stood up; eyes still fixed on Vergil's hand. "Yes of course. I'll leave you to it."

Vergil, satisfied with his report, opened the textbook , eager to understanding more.

**RYRY**

The halls of Beacon academy were home to many hoping to one day become Huntsmen. The school itself held a reputation as being one of the finest academies in the art of slaying grim. With every generation to attend; the hearts and minds of students have been molded from their rough clay to that of a ready Huntsmen. Ruby Rose's mind was already split three ways by the time combat training with Miss. Goodwitch started. She was always excited to see her other classmates in action, giving her plenty of material to think of combinations and formations her team could try out. On the other hand, the super-secret team RWBY stop bad guys mission was today. After Wiese, Blake and Yang all agreed to focus on stopping the White Fang, they decided the next time a secret meeting was held would be their time to act. Which so happened to be tonight. The extra bit of exiting that got Ruby going was only a few desks in ahead of her.

The man sat in a desk moved to be beside Miss. Goddwitch's when she walked in. He was dressed in the same long black coat he wore the day she helped him to Professor Ozpin's office. Lit by a small lamp in the dark room, books and papers front of him, Ruby saw Vergil. She couldn't understand why he'd be reading when the action was on the main stage in front of him.

Even if it was just singles sparing, she could hardly contain herself when Jaune actually managed to land a hit on Yang at the end of class. The leader of team JNPR would usually fold under her sister's assault of dust and punches. Yang had him dancing near the edge when she came in for the killing blow, ducking down for a rising uppercut that would send him flying off.

When her fist met his Crocea Mors' shield, instead of sending him flying into the air, Jaune used the blow's momentum to twist him around with his blade landing a solid counter. The backhanded spinning slash caught Yang's aura in an upward strike, the force of the blow making her take a step back.

The classroom erupted into cheers from team JNPR and a handful of other students along with Ruby. Although the blow dealt a good deal of damage, it was nowhere near enough to knock Yang's aura to critical. In the next breath of actin, Yang delivered a hard strait to the still recovering Jaune, knocking him out.

While the other students were getting ready to leave class, Ruby made her way to the front where the rest of team RWBY and JNPR gathered around the last two combatants. Yang knelt with Pyrrha beside the unconscious body of Jaune while the others talked among themselves. Ruby passed through the small crowd of teammates, stopping beside her sister.

"Yang, look!" Ruby said, pointing to the man at the desk, "It's him. The one I helped. Told you he was real."

Yang looked up from Jaune and Pyrrha; Pyrrha already tucking an arm under the unconscious boy's arm. She saw the who her sister was refereeing to; a quiet looking man poring over his work with short white hair slicked back. Probably look better if he'd smile more. "That's the guy you shared smoothies with?" Yang said.

"Yup. We've got allot in common. Wanna meet him?" She wrapped her arms around her sister's and tugged.

Yang gave the man a second look. He didn't seem like much at first, but most of the creeps she'd dealt with were never the ones to look the part. She didn't like something about the guy. Maybe the way he hunched over his books. Maybe how his eyes looked like he was born frowning. Big sister instincts were kicking in. She let an easy grin spread acrosss her face, enough to make her sister look on in confusion. A soft chuckle spilled out of her mouth and before she could let go, she pulled Ruby down into her arms. "Oh. My. God. Ruby. You got a crush on him, don't you?" she said, her voice echoing through the emptying classroom.

If Yang's teasing didn't catch anyone's attention, the following yells and squeals coming from a rose red Ruby did. Squirming in her sister's embrace, Ruby thrashed around; kicking and twisting herself under her sister's clutches to no avail. "What? Yang, gross. Let me go! Aaaaaaa!"

"Aww! I knew you'd be picky, but I didn't think you'd be into older men. I can't believe my sister is growing up right in front of me." She snuggled her face against her little sister's. The two on the floor garnered a good laugh their team. Yang looked over to the man of the hour, who was still just as caught up in his own reading. Not even a glance as far as she could tell.

Her lull in attention gave Ruby enough time to pull herself from under Yang's arm. Landing a good stomp on her sister's foot before pushing away, the younger sister stood free but hardly containing the frustration puffed on her face. Yang kneeled down to rub her foot. She'd teased her sister on boys before, but she'd never gotten her worked up enough to fight. She was glad in a way; her sister finally coming out of her shell. _He just had to be so old_. With a sigh she got back onto her feet and met her sister's gaze. Ruby was giving her the baby Ruby death glare Yang had become so used to back home. She shot back her own '_I'm sorry I can't help it_' grin. "Oh, ok. I guess he's real." She said.

Her sister's gaze lost its edge, but she still held it. "You really want me to meet him that bad?" she said with a sigh. Ruby nodded.

"Oook—."

"Yaaay! I'm sure Vergil will be happy to meet you." Ruby said, the cheer back in her voice.

Before her sister could drag her away, Yang turned to their group. "You guys wanna meet this mysterious stranger too?" She looked to her partner to find a cautious glare aimed right at the man. Before she could say anything, Blake glanced back to her and shook her head. Weise refused saying she wanted to make it in time to save good seats in the back of Professor Port's class for the rest of them. The two were leaving alongside team JNPR when Yang went with Ruby to meet her new friend.

Up close the man's features didn't change much. Yang saw his jacket was filled out with a good amount of muscle underneath and that he had a pair of fingerless gloves on the table; worn with use. When the two sisters stood across the table from him, Yang stuck her own hand out as Ruby started to speak, cutting her off with her own greeting.

"Well hey there," she said with all the good-natured charm she could muster, "I'm Yang. Ruby's big sister."

Ruby grabbed her sister's hand out of the man's face. "Ya-stop being-. Um. Hi, Mr. Vergil."

Vergil looked up from his book to the two girls in front of him. Staring at the eldest of the two, he closed his textbook, resting his hands on the cover. "Hello Ruby. I see your sister is as much of a handful as you've said."

"Oh, um. Haha, she's really nice once you get to know her." Ruby said.

"Yeah. I'm pretty nice once you get the _Yang_ of me." Yang's smile broadened when she caught the man's eyes narrow on her.

"Ugh. Yang that's horrible." Ruby said, covering her face.

"Quite," Vergil said, "What brings you two?"

Pulling her hand back from her sister, Yang offered it to the man again; this time, a reasonable distance away from his face. After a second of consideration, the man stood up from behind the desk and reached out with his own hand to shake. As Yang thought, his grip rough and firm with all the trademark calluses of a swordsman.

"That's a pretty nice handshake you got there," she said, her hand firm around Vergil's marble grasp, "You do allot of fighting?"

Ruby put both her hands on the battle between the two, desperately looking at them both. "Guys, I think Glynda is—." A rough chuckle from the man cut her off.

"I always welcome a challenge." Pursed lips bent in an stiff grin, Yang's own clamp like grip pressed down against his hand.

The two stood there, hands fixed in a tightening conflict. Each could feel the sweat from the other's palm, knuckles whitening. This close to him she could feel his aura; a weak one by usual standers but especially weak compared to her own. So how could he be giving this much trouble? Her hand couldn't take much more.

"And what do you think you are doing with these students?" A voice said behind them with a menacing calm.

Yang was the first to let go when Glynda came along. Neither one noticed when the professor strode over, her heals echoing through the mostly empty classroom. She made herself known now by standing close to Vergil and setting both her hands on the table with enough force for another echo to chase out the silence.

"They came to greet me. You remember Miss. Rose?" he said, rubbing his hand on his coat. Glynda looked from the man to Ruby and her sister. Where the eldest stood at attention, an understanding learned after a certain cafeteria incident and hours of cleaning; the youngest waived with a sheepish smile to Vergil. He waived back. Yang watched their teacher's thinning patients; a nervous smile of her own. Professor Goodwitche brought her crop with a crack onto the table in front of the two girls making them flinch.

"Girls?" She said, glad too see them both at attention.

"Yes Professor Goodwitch!" the sisters responded in unison.

"It is not polite to disturb a guest when they are working. Please head to your next class. Now."

"Yes Professor Goodwitch!" they said again and turned for the door. Before they marched halfway, Vergil spoke, "Yang, was it?"

Turning in a neat circle, Yang faced the man. "…Yes?"

"Your fight today; foolish to risk victory for a single blow," he said, "Patience. Restraint. In time, I'm sure even you can get the, _Yang_ of that." Before Yang could get another word in, Glynda cleared her throat in a way that harkened back to hours of cleaning, sending both girls out of the room.

Safe among the rabble of the girl's locker room, the two dropped their march and went about changing back into their uniforms. Yang was halfway changed out of her combat gear when she noticed her stood motionless staring into her locker beside her, the door covering her face. She tightened her grip on a hanger as she pulled out her uniform, Yang's classic smile slotting into place.

"Haha, can you believe that guy? Using my own line against me was so lame, right? "

"…yeah, lame." Ruby said, her voice sounding distant.

Yang paused, now eyeing her sister as she sat to pull off her boots. "Ha, yeah. You…you really seem to get along with that guy."

"He's not as bad as he looks." She leaned into her locker, for what, Yang couldn't tell.

"Well, he's no looker so that can't be much." She chuckled in the way she knew Ruby hated. A quick, raspy burst that would end her puns as a child.

"That's fine," Ruby said, "I'll just see him by myself then."

Yang stared up at her little sister. "Ruby, he's like three times our age."

Ruby pushed the locker shut and turned to face her sister; one hand gripping the clasp of her cloak on her shoulder. Yang froze, a tight knot filling her chest under the echo of her mother's glare. She'd forgotten how much Ruby looker like her, even more so when she was upset.

"I told you it's-," Ruby's words caught in her throat, her anger twisting into confusion from her sister's shocked stare. "I. It's not what you think, Yang. He's…" Ruby's mind raced for the right thing to say, to understand.

"He's like us. Lost his family really early, I mean. Not just his mom, but his dad." She hated how small her voice sounded when she was frustrated. "And now his brother too."

Yang felt a guilty relief when she saw Ruby's grip tighten around herself. Slowly, she scooted over and opened her arms to her sister. Ruby met her sister, plopping down next to her and burying her head in her chest. They sat there, ignoring the looks and stares of the other huntresses as they left. When Ruby raised her head to look at her sister, she saw the same sunny grin she'd always looked up to growing up.

"It would be scary. Losing you." Yang said, holding Ruby in her arms.

"Yeah." Ruby's voice squeaked, exhausted.

"Vergil must be going through allot right now."

Ruby pulled away and rubbed her eye's. "It sounded like it. I didn't get to hear allot before Glynda made me go, but Ozpin told me a little after."

Yange was glad some good came from team STRQ's reputation. "Ok." She said, clearing her throat.

Ruby looked to her sister. "Ok?"

"I'll play nice with him if it makes you happy."

"Really?" Ruby said, wearily .

"Yeah, really. But we're gonna need to talk boys later. It's about time you learned what boys you shouldn't mess with."

"Ugh Yang, I already know that stuff.'" She said, a small smile taking shape.

"Haha, sure you do. Now finish changing, we're already late for class. Don't want to make Blake and Weise wait for tonight because of a lecture from Port."

**VG**

The thought of his brother and himself being so close to one another crossed his mind as he watched Ruby and her sister march out the door. The sons of Sparda laughing together in their youth and causing trouble for one another; he dismissed the idea when professor Goodwitch cleared her throat. She stared up at him expectantly, her arms crossed and eyes narrowed.

"I didn't take you as one who likes to fool around." Glynda said.

"I am not." Vergil pulled his chair back and sat, lifting up a page of notes to be examined.

"Really? I haven't seen you smile until Miss. Rose and Miss. Xio Long came by."

He felt his face, the usual scowl stretched under his rough hand. "… unintentional," he said.

Glynda eased, setting her crop onto the desk beside his. "They are an interesting pair, those two. They can be rowdy, inattentive and unfocused at times, but they seem to look after one another."

He tried to ignore thoughts his younger brother. "They are fortunate." He said.

Vergil's statuesque face gave only a long-held look to the door for Glynda read. She would have pressed him further if not for the students, all dressed and ready for combat training, who broke the silence with their own chatter. She gave the man one last look to find him buried in his book; the section on aura awakening the new target of his scrutiny before turning to her own students.

**YNYN**

The cooling pavement of Vale's lower city were bright with the neon glow of after hour attractions. Strip clubs and bars woke from their daily slumber, now alive with their usual patrons and willing newcomers. Junior's club wasn't Yang's favorite club, but tonight she needed what was on their menu. Pulling up alongside choppers and custom rides, she parked her Bumble Bee, kicked up the stand, and went to make her entrance. She looked forward to showing off the new piece she'd thrown together; a white jacket with black sleeves cropped short by gold cuffs and supported by a strap around the collar, complemented by one of Blake's belts, a miniskirt and black stockings with garter belts attached. The only accessory she wasn't happy to have along was clutching around Blake's belt with his eyes still shut. After she jarred his helmet, Neptune peeked an eye open and sat up.

"Are we here?" he said, finally letting her go.

"Yup, my side of town," Yang said, fixing her belt, "You ready?"

Neptune straitened his cobalt blue hair after taking his helmet off. "Ready for what?"

Yang watched the growing line of people in front of club. "You think their just gonna give us what we want in there?"

"Umm…What was that again?" he asked, straitening his maroon windbreaker, "I was outside for most of the explaining."

Yang had to fight to keep her cheery smile from turning. She wasn't looking to babysit tonight, but apparently work found her. With a sigh she tried to give the best summary she could as they walked towards the club entrance:

"Sooo. Ruby and Wiese are getting info from the CCT on shipping losses," they passed the line of people waiting to get in.

"Blake and your friend are trying to get info on the White Fang's next move," she met the eyes of the bouncer posted at the door who turned tail and ran inside.

"And we're here to see if we can find anything on the criminal side of things." She watched a handful of Junior's cronies shut a newly installed large door in front of the. A small tinge of guilt passed her mind as she cocked her bracelets; the poor thing looked expensive.

Before she could blow open the door with her Ember Celica, they slid open. Standing between a very lively club and the two new arrivals was Junior sporting a new cast on his right leg and a throbbing purple mass where his right eye should have been. Despite the injuries, he still sported his bartender's outfit and hand towel around his waist. His usual lackeys all sported injuries Yang couldn't remember causing. "Xio Long," he said, beckoning them to follow, "Come with me."

"Aww, rolling out the red carpet for me?" Yang said, fluttering her eyes and framing her chin in her hands, "You shouldn't have."

"Just don't break anything. Skimming the budget enough after all the repair."

**BSBS**

Before the white fang were condemned, they would organize in townhouses, apartments or parks. Blake's fondest memories of growing up with the group were the times she would get to run around with other kids before the protest started. Before him, before the violence, before she ran away, the white fang meant standing up for her community and trying to change how they were treated. Dim warehouses buried underneath Vale were the only place the white fang could escape to now.

Blake stood among the crowed of faunas, Sun beside her. The large group were led by the hoods and masks of the white fang, their uniforms giving off the new militaristic style Blake couldn't stand. The two were handed initiate masks before entering like all the others: a slim eyewear designed in the style of grim.

"Just as cheery looking as I thought they would be." Sun said, fixing his mask on.

Blake elbowed him, watching if any of the guards overheard. "Quiet. They'll hear us." She whispered. The crowd filled into a large warehouse already packed with white fang solders, all sporting the same uniforms as their guides. The white fang's red claw insignia was imprinted on a black tarp covering something large enough to take up most of the makeshift stage in front. Idle chatter filled the ranks as the rest of the crowd followed. All around her, talk of new equipment, new supporters and more numbers, every word carried the shades of hope she wanted to believe in so long ago.

As the bay doors closed behind them, a member of the white fang took the stage. A muscular man with tattoos and short hair Blake recognized as one of the lieutenants. With a flick of his thumb on the microphone in his hand, large speakers at the side of the stage screeched to life, silencing all in attendance.

The lieutenant cleared his voice, a deep sounding thing with an accent Blake never could pin. "Thank you all for coming. For those of you joining us for the first time, allow me to introduce a vital comrade of ours. I can assure you; his group has been key to reinforcing our cause and obtaining what we've been fighting for!"

Stepping onto the stage from behind the tarp, Roman Torchwick applauded his own entrance with the same swagger he had the night they fought. His Melodic Cudgel hanging off of his arm, he took the mike from the lieutenant, and with a tip of his hat greeted the audience. "Thank you, thank you! Please, hold your applause!"

Blake felt some relief hearing the crowd erupt with boos and disapproval. "What's a human doing here!?" a doe fauna yelled behind her.

"I'm glad you asked, 'deerie'! I'll be the first to admit, humans…are the worst." He pointed to himself, grinning. "Case in point. So, I understand why you would like to see all of us locked away, or at the very least, put in our place."

Sun leaned over to Blake. "So, he going somewhere with this?"

"But, before the claws come out, I'd like to point towards one common enemy: the people pulling the strings, the ones in control, the cheating, rotten humans that leach off of our kingdoms! Eh, no offense to any leaches in the room." Around the room, murmur and talk of injustices suffered from by the people emerged. In no time, the frustration they all felt built a humid presence. "That's right! Government, media, even the schools; they've all got a hand in keeping your people under foot!"

Blake felt a twist in her gut. She knew if she didn't know any better, she'd be eating out of his hands just as bad as everyone else. The councils that ran the kingdoms always shied away from faunas centered problems. Whole news networks were built around making them look like monsters. She watched the looks of pain and hope twist with a desperate hate, all looking up to a criminal for guidance in the dark corner of Vale. She looked to Sun, the mask barley covering the dread on her face. For once, he said nothing, only meeting her stare with his own; but she could tell he felt it too.

"They're an infection of corruption and greed rotten straight to the core! Fortunately, I've got the best medicine to wipe them out." With a snap of his fingers, the tarp fell, and the entire warehouse erupted in applause.

Towering steal and led in the form of an Atlesian Paladin-290, the emblem of the white fang painted on its shoulder, stood shining for all to see.

"That's a big robot…" Sun said.

"How did he—." Blake was cut off by Roman, spinning his cane around and laughing.

"Hahaaa! If you loved that, you're gonna jump out of your seats for my very special guest! If you've been on the net at all this weekend, you'll have heard of him." He stepped to the side of the stage and pointed his cane to the center. "Let me introduce you to the Red Stampede!"

**YNYN**

Through flashing lights and fog machines Yang saw partygoers dancing around broken pillars. If there was some new trend about wearing red, Yang hadn't been told about it. All around, red could be seen on every dancer, most sporting a white headpiece to boot. Small crowds huddled around large gashes in the walls and floors taking pictures with the staff. Ahead of them, what was left of the main bar was riddled with streaks of holes. "Sheesh, you ever heard of a repair crew, Jun-Jun? This place is a wreck." Yang said.

Junior took his place behind the bar before straitening his tie, her words bouncing off him. She took a seat in front of him, planting both elbows onto the counter. Neptune took a seat beside her, nervously looking around. "Your friends don't look so nice," he said.

"Yeah, Junior. Roman decide to let off some steam after dropping off your lackies?" Yang said.

Junior's face twisted into a laugh as he picking out a bottle from the rack behind him. "I wish Roman brought me this much business. No, this is from the Red Stampede."

Yang was about to ask what he meant when Neptune shot out of his chair, bringing both hand onto the counter. In his eyes, a twinkle of star struck awe wiped out any sort of fear. "This is where the Red Stampede happened?!"

Junior only nodded his head, the smug satisfaction pealing a smile onto his face.

Neptune pulled out his scroll and shot to his feet, taking selfies of himself with the wreckage by the counter. "I'll be back in a sec." he said as he wandered off.

Yang watched him disappear into the crowed before turning back to Junior, her smile deflated into a frustrated grin. "SO, you haven't heard anything from Roman lately?" she said, "No gig he needs a hand with?"

He filled two shot glasses and passed her one. "Some say the Red Stampede got picked up by one of Roman's people after everything settled down. Don't know how much I trust that, but it's something."

"You didn't see it yourself?"

Junior took his shot in one go before setting the glass down with a clunk. "Lady, most of us were unconscious before he left."

Yang gave the club another look, understanding settled in. Enough understanding to believe him at least. "No news from Roman at all?"

"Eh, after he dropped off my guys weeks ago, I haven't heard from him since."

Dreading her luck, she took the shot whole and passed back the glass. "This… 'Stampede' got a name?" she said.

Junior took the glass and cleaned it off with his towel, shaking his head. "Listen girly, this guy is out of your paygrade."

She shot him a look, but to her surprise it just made him chuckle. "We were getting ready for you, you know. Get back our dignity, land some more street cred. My boys were toughening up pretty well." He poured himself another drink, offered her one, but she declined.

"Even if I had all my boys that night, that man would have walked through all of them. Made the twins look like armatures. Outshot our entire outfit with two guns. Hell, he rode my dust rocket like some kind of surfboard! Who does that?" He took another shot, set the glass down with a shaky hand.

"And now he's rolling with Roman." Yang said, a waiver in her voice she was too late to catch.

"You better hope you don't find Roman." Junior said, racking the bottle, "If I had a guy like that in house, you bet I'd be eager to use him."

"Well, it's something to work with." Yang said, getting out of her chair. "See, isnt it nice to give a girl what she wants?" She left him with a wink and a grin.

"Just don't break anything." Junior said, cleaning his own glass.

Yang made her way to the main door, bouncers and goons backing off in her wake. Before making it through, she felt someone grab her shoulder. She turned to see Neptune out of breath behind her. "Are we going already?" he said.

"We got what we came for. Let—" she was cut off by her scroll, the chiming of its ringer told it was Blakes.

**BSBS**

Seconds passed with nothing happening. Roman looked to the back of the stage with an obvious grimace. "Eehhhemm!" he called back. A roar of thunder filled the room with bellows of force that slammed off of each wall. Behind the Paladin, sparks lit the dark of the back stage, and just as suddenly flew over the mech. Streaks of lightening trailed beside a silver blur of raging steal on wheels. It landed center stage, its front wheel planted, the hind wheel carving a crescent as it turned to give a side profile to the audience. At the peak of its ark, the motorbike vanished, its rider using the momentum of the turn as a springboard for his own spin in the air. Landing in a twist, long red coat following after, he stopped facing away from the crowd with one hand around his waist, the other pointing back to them.

A second eruption of applause roared through the air, cheers and whistles accompanying them. Blake looked at the man on stage, confused. She 'd never seen him before but something about him felt familiar. Whatever thoughts she was having were overpowered by Sun, who grabbed her arm and started jumping up and down.

"Oh My God! Blake it's him!" he screamed.

"Who?" She had to yell to hear herself over everyone around her.

"What do you mean who? The guy all over the net. He did a bunch of crazy moves in some club. I thought it was all made up, but where did the motorcycle go, Blake? Where!" He pulled out his scroll and flicked on the camera. "Oh I got to get a shot of this. Neptune is gonna be so jealous."

"Sun, no!" Blake said.

On the stage Roman walked up to the Red Stampede with a white fang cowl and mask in hand. Taking off his long coat, he twirled his jacket from side to side as Roman approached, spinning it above his head and launching it into the air before taking the mask and hood from him. With a quick spin counter to that of his coat, he had the hood and mask on in one fluid motion, ending the feat be jumping into the air, twisting into his now descending coat and landing, facing the crowed, coat, cowl and mask on for all to see.

Roman stepped beside the man, putting a hand on his shoulder. "That's right folks! Not only has my employer managed to snag us a few of Atlas's new toys before they, uh, 'hit the shelves', but I bring you this handsome devil here to fight for our cause! That's one hell of a deal." His voice barely overpowering the group with the speakers, Roman waived for the recruiters to from up in front of him. "Now, many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the southeast, if you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine… But if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in; this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?"

Blake looked to Sun, his concern as clear as her own. "We should get out of here"

With the crowed at its peak, Roman gave the microphone to the lieutenant to speak. "Will all new recruits please come forward!" he said.

As the two tried to back away, the crowd behind them pushed forward, bringing them towards the stage. "Welp. This is a problem." Sun said.

Moving closer to the stage with every step of the crowd, they looked around for anything to help them escape.

"What are we gonna do?" Sun whispered.

"I'm thinking…" she said, eyeing a fuse box on the side of the wall.

"Blake," he said, looking straight at the stage.

"Did you find something?" she said, looking to him.

"They did…" He pointed with his tail ahead of them, Roman, the lieutenant and even the Red Stampede all looking back.

"Get them!" Roman yelled, his hand shaking as he pointed at the two.

"Can't catch what you can't see." Blake reached for Gamble Shroud over her shoulder when a hand caught her by the elbow before she could aim it at the fuse box she spotted earlier. In front of them, the Red Stampede held her in his grip, a red haze fading around him. Sun stood, mouth agape at the man. This close he could see locks of silver hair over the white fang initiate mask, underneath, an easy grin greeted the two.

"Hey now, aren't planning on causing trouble, are you?" he said, bringing his other hand on Sun's shoulder.

"We were just leaving." Blake said. She formed a duplicate in her place, using the escape as a chance to aim up at the fuse box. Three shots struck true, sending the warehouse into darkness. "Sun, the window!"

Bright flashes of light burst from Sun's scroll into the Stampedes face, causing him to lift his arm to cover the light on reflex. "Oh Man! Sorry! Big Fan! Bye!" Sun stammered as he chased after Blake in the dark. Soft teal lights outlined the cockpit of the paladin while the electric sound of a fully powered mech taking its first steps shook the room.

Blake and Sun burst through the window, the combat ready Paladin tearing a hole in the wall behind them. As the student Huntsmen ran across dim rooftops of the abandoned strip, the Paladin followed in close pursuit along the streets below, toppling lamp posts and cars as if they were toys.

Sun looked behind them at the growing wreckage. "So, we have oh, I don't know… some form of backup!?"

"Already on it!" Blake said, Scroll in hand.

**DDDD**

The newly formed hole on the warehouse spilled moonlight into the darkened room, the dust dancing among a blowing breeze. Appearing on stage in a red haze, Dante patted the lieutenant's shoulder. The muscular man looked up to him, untucking himself from fear of being stepped on by a giant robot. "Mr. Stampede," he said, dusting himself off and clearing his throat, "What…I, uh."

"Easy there, buddy. You still look pretty shook up. Didn't hit your head, did you?" Dante said, meeting the man at eye level.

"No, sir. I think I'm good." The lieutenant felt his head. All there.

"Good. Make sure these people don't get into a panic, then." He patted the man on the shoulder before picking the microphone off the floor. A high pitch hiss shot out of the speakers, bringing the nervous whispers from the crowd to a halt. All eyes looked to the Red Stampede holding the mic close to the amp while sitting on one of the larger pieces of wall. The sound died as he stood up and strode back to the stage beside the lieutenant.

"Ladies and germs, please remain calm as we make an orderly exit!" Dante said, smiling with his best devil may care charm. "As this building is no longer safe to hold the event, staff will be opening the rear bay doors to allow you to make your exit. Remember not to push or shove your fellow ma, er… faunas as you leave." He pointed towards the bay doors. The white fang members there, without questioning his authority, went to open the large gate. "Thanks, and please come again." Dante said before passing the mic back to the lieutenant.

"There, gave you a head start. I'll be backstage." He said, heading off.

The small space behind the crumpled tarp Dante called a back stage was a single folding chair, a half-eaten chocolate bar, and a handful of mildly unhappy people. Felt just like home. The green one with a bob cut looked down at her phone while the quiet one shook her head, face firmly planted into palm. He picked up his chocolate bar from the ground and took a seat, watching Emerald have a one-sided conversation with Neo in front of him. Emerald looked up from her screen every now and then to stare at him, her nerves never settling. Neo was the one he worried about. He put two more bites into his bar when she walked forward; done listening to Emerald's whispering.

He greeted her with an easy smile, her, sending a dry one in return. She flicked her eyes towards the settling hole in the wall and looked back at him. Setting the candy down, Dante leaned his head back with a sigh. "He's got it…" he said, knowing she'd never settle for him.

She crossed her arms and looked at the crumpled tarp on the stage. "That thing? He'll… bring it back."

She looked up to the remains of the window; wooden fragments stuck to the ceiling holding a pane's worth of glass along the top. "Them?" He met her gaze with his own, her smile as easy to see through as her illusions. He stood up, finding it harder and harder to play along. "Look missy, I already performed this gig for free. Don't expect me t—." An explosion shook through the underbelly of Vale, its echoes reaching the warehouse.

He looked to Neo, then to the hole. Pulling out his scroll, he handed the device to her. "This thing still tracking him?" he said. She swiped through the device, activating its tracker and beacon functions, before handing it back to him. She nodded.

He looked back to her, a tired grin pulling at his face. "Come on. We're all gonna have a nice long talk about this when we get back," he said, taking his gaze to Emerald, who was watching the exchange from afar, "Including your boss."

Shooting through the hole on Cavalier, Dante and Neo made their way to Roman. Emerald watched them leave before turning to her scroll. A woman with long black hair and bright amber eyes looked to her through the screen, arms folded over her crimson dress.

"Is he following orders this time, Emerald?" the woman said.

"Yes, ma'am," she replied, "but…" The girl looked to Neo for something to say. She got an indifferent shrug instead.

"But what, Emerald?" the woman said, the sound of rotary blades speeding up in the background.

"He says he'd like to have a word with you." Emerald said. She took a seat, the blades growing louder and louder.

"Ma'am, do you hear me?" she said again.

"Yes. I hear you. I'll be meeting him soon enough." Emerald could see the inside of a bullhorn's cabin when she looked back at her screen. The woman was seated with one hand holding onto a bar by the door, the bright lights of the city shining through the window. "It's about time I put that pawn in its place."

**RWBY VS. D**

The highways towered over the concrete battle ground, their soft teal barriers throwing just enough light for any of the combatants to see. Ruby watched a very angry Yang fly past her, her ignited aura still holding strong and giving her the fiery glow of her semblance. _I need Yang. Yang hit hard. Hit hard asap. How hi—_

"Bumblebee!" Ruby yelled, reloading her Crescent Rose and watching Blake throw her Gambol Shroud to tether to Yang. Just like they'd practiced, Blake used her gunblade's grappling line to swing Yang around in a wide circle. Ruby's heart raced finally getting to see her team attacks used on the field, the hours spent training Checkmate, Freezer Burn and Lady Bug at Beacon finally paying off. She'd only wished they'd practiced on moving targets after seeing how fast the Paladins could be despite their size. It backstepped, dodging Yang's blow, her momentum sending her on another revolution with Blake's line.

_Next move. Too fast. Who's left. How do—_

She looked to Wiese. "We need to slow it down." She called to her partner.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Weise said, holding her side as she joined her.

"Ice flower!" Ruby knew her partner understood when she cast an ice glyph for her. She lined her scythe rifle with the white rune and took aim. The glyph's form waivered, its rotation leaving a lagging trail of light. Ruby eyed her partner: her jacket worn, most of her dust cartridges used and her aura close to running low, she couldn't say much better for herself but she knew hey were winning. Not much longer now. She fired four shots imbued with the frost at Roman's armless mech, an eager grin waiting to see her sister land the finishing blow.

The four blue lines of frost flew towards the unarmed paladin only to meet a red haze and four strikes from hell scorched steel. Plumes of steam filled the shadows of the highway, the piercing eruption of ice instantly melted echoing through the mist.

Yang saw the pillar of steam growing closer and closer as she made her way to her mark. A quick glance to Blake told the girl her friend knew just as little as she did. Their eyes met in a heartbeat, the whites of her partner's eyes looking up to her. _As soft as ever._ She shot her a grin and a wink before turning to face the embrace of the fog around her.

Crimson and gold crashed against one another, filling the column with light before pushing the steam out towards the watching members of team RWBY, the force enough to blow an exhausted Weise over. Ruby tucked her hood down and braced herself against Crescent Rose for the blast, the second she could recover, she called out into the fog.

"Yang!"

The throbbing in Yang's hand told her she was still alive as she opened her eyes, a memory of someone jumping in front of her filling her dazed mind. For a brief second, she was relieved she could still feel her semblance working, then it started to burn, fighting to absorbing the energy and making it her own. "Haha, I wish you could see the look on your face, little girl" a voice said from above.

Through plumes of pain, Yang saw Roman leaning out of the hatch of the Paladin looking down at her. She tried to move, thrashing her legs, but her arms were held tight. A light tugging on her left told her Blake's bow was still wrapped around her arm, connecting them. When she looked to her right, she saw her arm in the grip of another.

"And this," Roman pointed his cane at the man holding her, "Is the Red Stampede." Yang felt the faceless stare from the masked man bear down on her. With the White Fang hood on, she could only make out the white stubble around his mouth and his piercing blue eyes.

Gritting her teeth, Yang fought to stare the man down. Her heart drove itself against her chest, tears streaming down her face; the inferno building inside turned into a searing crimson eager to consume her. She felt it; furious, raw, absolute. It towered over any kind of power Yang had ever felt before. Pain gave way to more power as her glare turned into a grin. The tugging on her arm told her enough, but when she heard her sister's call, she couldn't help but laugh.

"Yang! Sunny Side Up!"

With her new found strenght, Yang pulled herself towards the man with Blakes line in hand, a devilish gleam in her eyes. "How you like your eggs, Mr. Stampede?" she said. Pulling the ribbon over her, she crashed her fist onto the Stampede's head in a downwards arch. "Cus you're scrambled!"

The Stampede gave a familiar grin as he took Yang's strike to the head. "Sorry kid," he said, lifting his head against her, "I like mine over easy."

**DR**

Following the line, Dante looked up to see the punchy girl's comrades. He gave a glance to Roman, looking up, his confident grin bending down. He rolled his eyes. "Roman," he readied a jump, "you're no paying me enough for this."

He forced himself and the girl into the air, passing Roman and meeting the first assailant in the breath of a moment. He tossed his catch into her, tangling the two in the line connecting them. The second girl swiped and stabbed at him as she passed, her blade cutting the empty air around him. He planted a foot into her gut before using the second girl as a platform to go higher, clearing the fog and sending her into the tangled two. He met the last, a scythe user, readying her blade for a vertical cleave. They saw each other; both far above the fog, both bathed in a moonlight tinted with the glow of the roads around them.

Ruby tried to get a read on the man as he approached. She could see some kind of holster behind him but not what they held. His hands were opened and relaxed, arms spread out to his side. His long coat didn't have any dust engravings or pockets that could hide anything from her. And, his face was… eyes were…

Hesitation; the moment she'd spent lost in her head enough time for him to have already met her. He grabbed onto Crescent Rose's shaft with one hand, hooked a foot at the tail, and spun himself around, scooping her into his free arm in one smooth motion. The momentum of his spin lined the shaft straight to the floor as they fell, a spiraling trail of rose pedals drifted behind them. On impact the man landed in front of the Paladin with one last spin to soften the fall, before using the momentum to toss Ruby into the pile of her recovering team.

Dante twirled the scythe blade in one hand, feeling a strange familiarity with the weapon, before planting it into the ground and propping himself up with it. "Roman!" he called up to the stunned criminal, his mouth agape underneath a crooked bowler hat, "Why have you got me fighting kids over here?"

**RWBY **

The world didn't stop spinning for Ruby until Yang shook her by the shoulders, an unusual red tinge to her glowing aura. She fought against her churning stomach and got to her feet with her sister's help, paying special attention to avoid stepping on her still dazed teammates. Blake was flat on her back beside Ruby with Yang moving to wake her next, taking her head in her hands and patting Blake's cheeks. Ruby lugged her head around looking for Weise to see her on her knees, clutching her stomach.

"Weise!" she said, making her way to her partner, "are you alright?"

The heiress turned away, wiping her face on her sleeve and tried to stand. Ruby went to support her, steadying her by the arm. "Still think this was a good idea?" Weise said, shaken eyes looking up to her leader.

Ruby couldn't deny it. All four of the girls were worse for wear, their auras already in critical states, bruises and scrapes where a strong enough shield couldn't defend. She looked to the White Fang member with the red long coat, her Crescent Rose in the man's hands. Ruby knew her team couldn't be any better with their dust use either. A hand found its way to her cloak's shoulder clasp. "…we were winning." She said, her voice small.

Ember Celica chambering a new round turned Ruby's head to her sister. She stood over a recovering Blake, the strange red aura still surrounding her. "I can still fight." She said, pilling her scroll out.

Ruby shook her head, holding Weise and trying to make it to her sister. "But Yang, your aura's almost-"

"I know. But I feel," Yang clutched her hands, a new power coursing through her, "…good." She set her scroll beside Blake. "I already dialed for Sun and Neptune. When they make it, get out of here or something. I'll hold them off."

**DR**

From where Dante stood, the dark underbelly of highway felt almost like a typical setting for one of his jobs. Put Roman in an occult hood, make the kids helpless and all that was left was the demon. Watching the kids struggle to get up, Dante waited for his employer's response. "Well?" he said.

A small chirping sprang to life inside the cockpit of the Paladin and Dante's pocket. Rolling his eyes at the timing of this world, he pulled his scroll out, fumbled with the touch controls and answered, bringing the device to the side of his head.

Roman closed the hatch of the Paladin, what running cameras still worked on the thing flicked to life, showing the stunned or unconscious members of team RWBY in a pile. On the side of the screen, four panels opened to show the woman in red, Emerald and Mercury, Neo and the side of Dante's head. Bellow the live feeds, a ping on his radar showed a large approaching blip with a friendly indicator.

"Jeez, did you know how close I got to losing my head? I swear, you get stuck in traffic or something?" Roman said, engaging the Paladins transportation mode.

"I see our new recruit is pulling his weight, unlike some of us." The red dressed woman said. "You're supposed to look at the scroll, sweaty." The panel holding Dante shifted to show the devil hunter with the Paladin and scythe in view. "Well, aren't you a looker," she said, the shadows of the bullhorn's cabin hiding a smile, "and you've got me a little souvenir. How thoughtful."

"Don't thank me just yet," Dante said, his gaze to the blond girl standing in front of her friends, "jobs not done and I've got some complaints to make."

"Indeed. Emerald, Mercury, have all the new recruits been transported yet?" the woman said.

Emerald eyed her scroll while Mercury took hold of the camera. "We've got a full house of new recruits no thanks to your little stunt, Roman. The Stampede's the man of the hour yet again." Emerald looked to take the scroll from Mercury. "Final tally counts at four hundred thirty, ma'am. We'll need another shipment of uniforms from White Fang central to compensate.

"Oh, come on. Everyone loves a high risk thrill now and then. It's part of the lifestyle." Roman said, fixing his bowler hat. "Speaking of thrills, Neo, where have you been?"

Glaring up from her scroll, Neo showed Dante and the paladin from a distance on her screen followed by a look at a number of support columns with scorched tire marks dug into them, and, to end her retelling, a small puddle of what was once her lunch.

"Bumpy roads." Dante said with a shrug. "So, are you gonna pick us up or what?"

The bullhorn, now taxying above the unarmed Paladin, descended cables with magnetic clamps around the mech. "Ma'am, I'm reading plenty of unwanted company already on its way." Emerald said, watching her scroll.

"Very well," the woman said, opening the side door of the bullhorn, "Lets clean up here." The scrap around the were the Paladin's arms gathered together in the air bellow her, the metal spiraling into molten heaps as they stretched to form four glowing javelins pointed towards the recovering team. Not liking the sound of that, Dante stowed the scroll, making the first move.

**Y**

Yang's hands shook, her gaze shifting between the Red Stampede, the bullhorn and the four red bolts aimed at her team. With everything happening, part of her wanted to see her uncle Qrow spring from the shadows to come and save them. She was a weak little kid with her sleeping baby sister in a wagon then, lost in a forest surrounded by grim. She remembered the feeling of cold fear gripping her chest. The same cold threatened to wrap its brittle fingers around her heart now. Her gauntlets felt light around arms; fists clenched tight. She reached for the new strength she had inside her, its scolding presence searing the cold. The Stampede walked forward, scythe in hand, his face a stoic marble. She could feel him, his power so similar. So much. Enough to save her team and kill anyone who would threaten to hurt them. A thought, as silent and harsh as a smoldering flame crossed her mind. _Power. Give me more power._

**Round Two**

The Stampede appeared inches away in a haze of red with his back to her. Seeing an opening, Yang planted two good hits into his side before readying a third aimed at his head. With each strike she could feel her aura crumpling against her fist, leaching handfuls of his power from him. With every bit of aura she burned on him, she felt her own power grow.

The man leaned his head to the side, her fist dragging along the hood of his cowl. Pulling back, she grabbed the man by the shoulder and lifted herself up to drive her other hand into the side of his skull. Wrapping her legs around him, she bashed her fists into his face four times, roaring with every swing.

Before a fifth blow could land, the Stampede caught her by the wrist and belt, tearing her off of him and throwing her back to her team. She hit the dirt hard, her face dragging against the floor before she settled. She scrambled to get up, her team passing her in a blur. A voice, something about being here soon.

She grabbed the man from behind by the shoulder, leveraging herself up to land a blow to his jaw. Instead of landing on his face, a glowing red blade took the hit. It all felt the same to her. She beat against the thing four more times before the man grappled her off again, throwing her in front of him onto the ground.

"Kid, you're getting to be a real pain in the ass." The Stampede said, burning blades taking form around him and shooting off past her, "it's bedtime." With that, he slapped two glowing fingers onto her jaw, shattering what was left of her aura and overpowering her semblance.

**D**

Dante turned and lay the blond-haired girl down in front of her friends. His four handed routine keeping whatever the red dressed woman was throwing at bay, he looked to the remaining three children and grimaced. "You kids got an exit strategy or something?" he said.

He wasn't surprised when no one wanted to talk to him; terrified faces and angry glares were an industry standard. No surprise when the black-haired girl threw her gun knife at him, planting it into his chest. And now, the horrified shrieks from them all when they didn't expect it to actually stick. He pulled the blade from his gut and tossed it back to her, watched her cringed away from it, tossed the red hooded girl her fancy weapon too. No need.

"You're a monster." The white haired one with the ponytail cried.

"Yeah, sure," He said turning around, "just make sure you kids get home safe."

One trick later and he was beside the woman in red, his hand grabbed hers before she could launch another volley of javelins. He glared down at her, the shock and anger flashed through her face before a cool understanding settled. She smiled at him and pulled out her scroll.

"Roman, are you done fixing the clamps?" she said, her voice smooth as glass.

"No thanks to you." He said, jumping into the Paladin's cockpit.

"Good, fetch your pet and strap in," she said, "We have more business to attend to."

Dante let her go, shutting the door as he took a seat beside it. The woman's eyes glowed a soft amber as she held his gaze. Seating herself across from him, she crossed her legs and set her hands on her knees, tucking her scroll into a purse beside her. "So, you have some complaints for me, Dante?"

The son of Sparda reached up and pulled his mask off, cowl and all, revealing the grime and dust from the girl's strikes matted onto his otherwise untouched face.

"My, you are the looker after all." she said, easing her smile, "You may call me Cinder."

**OGOG**

Atop the tower of Ozpin's office, the secretary and headmaster shared an uneasy silence. After the ambulances, police, reporters and faculty had all settled down the last thing on their agenda need to be done behind closed doors.

"We should have put him down the moment he flew through the window." Glynda said, staring through the refurbished glass.

"It would have been too much of a risk to the students." Ozpin said, a recording of the fight taken from atop the highway playing on his screen.

"And the other one Isnt?" She twisted her crop in her hands and shot her gaze at him.

He stood up, exhaustion marking his features, and walked over to her. "It is because they are so dangerous that we need them now more then ever. Now that we know she has one, we must have the other."

Glynda hated that she understood. The damage that could be done with one devil at full strenght was clear enough. But with two, she shuddered at the thought. "This cannot come to the children, Ozpin," she said, looking up to him, "I won't allow it."

He stood in front of her, Vergil's report in hand. "We won't need to worry soon."

She took the report in a clammy hand and wiped her face on her sleeve. "Have you found something, is the aether restored?"

A calm smile settled onto his face. Bending down, he took her hands into his own and held them. Runes circled around their hands giving off a faint green glow. "It is not only reforming…" he said, pulling his hands away from hers.

Instead of fading , the green runes shifted to a blue hue, the symbols sliding into a different pattern and taking new shapes. Glynda's heart skipped a beat.

Ozpin stood tall. "It is filling with a greater power."

**Hey, thanks for making it to the ending! I hope you enjoyed the story so far. Sorry this took so long, summer was a lot busier than I thought it would be. I think I grossly underestimated how much time it would take to make this chapter. Ended up being longer then I planed too. I felt bad so I wanted to and one more action scene with Yang and Dante to make up for it, so I hope that was ok. **

**To clear up some things around what Dante did in the fog. It was a royal revenge, not a perfect release. One of those would probably take out anyone other then Vergil. He used King Cerberus, too. I don't want Dante to use DSD unless he's getting serious but he will use his summon swords more often and in different ways. Cutscene Dante, if that makes sense to you. **

**On Yang, I thought it would be interesting to give her some meter. She's got about two and a half right now. I kinda like the idea of giving her a DT and basing it off of the grimm vers fan art floating around. Not all the way, just maybe horns and black irises. Ether that or something based off of Dante's dreadnaught form. But that's only if I do go on with it. **

**I had a lot of fun writing this one. Don't think the rest will be as long though. Not sure how consistent I can make these with the school year coming on too. And work. But here's to hoping. Thank you again for enjoying the story!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello today! Here is the next part. Sorry for the delay.**

The hum of the rotary blades filled the quiet between metal cables straining against the weight of Roman's one-ton armless paladin below. Cold midnight air swept past the metal construct's thick hull as the lights of lower Vale grew further away. To mask itself in the dark, the bullhorn's lights all shut off, leaving it flying into the abyss of night high over the fields of the southern agricultural district. Cinder sat, her legs crossed as she watched the man, Dante, take his seat. Sprawling himself across the vacant seating around him, propping his right leg onto the empty seat to his left and held his head up with his left arm as he lay across the row of wall mounted chairs. He lulled his head toward her with a grin. She eyed him before letting a thin smirk crossed her face.

"You certainly live up to your reputation, Mr. Red Stampede. Although I never took you for an altruist."

He chuckled, rubbing his chin with his hand. "You can drop the Knick name. I figured Roman would have told you that much about me by know."

"Among other things, yes. He does like to talk." Cinder replied.

"Good, then I think it's about time you answered some of my questions."

In the cabin Cinder's eye filled with light, an amber glow filling the dark around her. "Dante, Dante, Dante. You may have proven to be more than a simple thug, but there are grander forces at work." She brought her right hand in front of her, spreading her fingers. An aura, bright with the same glow of her eyes, enveloped them in a flare of light. She gave a satisfied smile; her power surging through her.

"Although you certainly are capable, I can't risk letting you slow my operations. So, let me make this clear." With a flick of her fingers, a small flame javelin formed between the two of them. It revolved in the air, its surface glowing in uneven yellow fissures where the heat of the projectile deepened. She was impressed, seeing the man not so much as flinch with searing death only a few inches away.

"You will obey my orders more effectively and prove to me that you are deserving of a place in my court. Any less," the javelin drew closer, its tip spiraling over his heart, "and finding your brother will be the least of your concerns. Understand?"

He let out a chuckle, gliding the back of his right hand along javelin ending in a flick of his wrist and a rose between his thumb and finger. "And here I thought bug man had grand delusions."

Cinder frowned, the javelin taking on a searing heat powerful enough to bloom its yellow light. "Excuse me?" she said, an edge taking form at the end of her words.

Dante brought the flower to his face, nuzzling the red petals under his nose; eyes locked onto hers. "This world's pretty strange with all the fancy magic going on. Only got the regular stuff where I'm from; not counting me of course. Demon blood has that going for it." He twirled the rose between thumb and finger. "You've got something special about you too, don't you?

Cinder narrowed her eyes, his rambling reaching her final nerve. She let her power flare into the javelin, its simple form contorting to form serrated teeth along its edges. "Oh, finally understand the position you are in? Good. Unless you wish to experience what makes me so 'special' first hand, I recommend you start taking me more seriously, or else your brother will be the last of your concerns."

She watched him roll his eyes at her. Watched the rose's stem grow stiff and its petals take a burgundy light of their own. She watched the petals burst into a red drift of ash and pollen when he taped it against the tip of her flame javelin, but she felt her power over it shatter in an instant. A dark filled the cabin around her, her light only strong enough to illuminate her face. A rustling of leather and fabric from the dark followed by two crimson lights that stared at her from across the bullhorn gave enough light to show Cinder the man sat up, arms crossed and leaning back. From him an aura flooded the cabin, its presence thick with power enveloped her in a miasma of red.

"How's that for understanding?" he said, a lazy grin taking his face. "Now, why don't you tell me about those grander forces?"

A red glow took the bullhorn and its cargo underneath, propellers straining in the air against the vehicle's new hold. The cabin's glow illuminated the two in crimson, Cinder staring up at the mad grin of a devil.

**EDED**

Vale's southern docks held a stillness only abandoned innovation could acheve. The kingdom's attempt at expanding their shipping capabilities, the rushed planning and poor funding only created perfect conditions for a construction monopoly that would run the project to the ground. Despite lost investments, the kingdom's focus on preparations for the Vytal festival have only pushed the southern docks further down the conscious of the Vale council. The forsaken city blocks lining the waterfront of Vale's agricultural district, fenced off from the rest of Vale, looked best night, far from any lights save for the dimming of the improvised landing pad created by the White Fang.

The ramshackle of abandoned warehouses and construction sites hid among them the heart of Roman's operations in Vale. Underneath the wreckages of scaffolding and tarps, bunkers housing the White Fang operatives lay unseen. Gutted warehouses were the stage of training drills for new recruits on combat and tactics. In one particularly modified warehouse, fitted with generators, communications arrays, and the remaining stashes of dust, Emerald and Mercury stood on top of the roof surrounded by darkness watching the patches of clouds drift by.

The binoculars felt cold under Emerald's hands, the thin metal chilling in the night air. She tucked into the tan fur coat she used on stakeouts and paced around the concrete platform, her heels clacking bouncing off of the nearby structures. A quick glance at her scroll told her it was already twenty minutes past Cinder's expected arrival.

"You wonder why we're here?" she said, looking over to Mercury.

The young man sat up from his place on the floor, taking in a deep breath before a yawning. "It is one of life's greatest mysteries."

"What? No. I mean out here on top of the base." She raised an eyebrow at him on the floor.

"Oh, yeah. Cinder isnt back yet ether, I guess." Mercury got up, dusting himself off.

"Right, but if she hasn't called us about being stalled and she only mentioned settling things with the Stampede..."

Mercury leaned over Emerald, crossing his arms with a grin. "Is that doubt for our great leader, I hear?"

"Of course not." She swatted him away, walking over to the edge of the roof. "I have total faith in Cinder. I just..."

He followed her, taking a squat beside where she stood. "What, think she's going to find her prince charming in that guy then?"

"Please. That man has no class, he smells like hot death when you get too close to him and-."

Something bolted from the clouds, red light swaying across the stars into patches of black blotches of cloud. The two watched the streak make its way across the sky until it stalled above the base. It hung in the sky, its red glow muffled by the blanket of cloud passing over them until it vanished, leaving the sound of revving engines accompanied by the furious whirring of propellers.

In the split-second following confusion, Emerald jumped off of the rooftop to the makeshift landing pad bellow. "Turn the landing pad lights back to full power!" She shouted to the White Fang crew huddled under the console's makeshift hut. The red and blue indicator lights of the platform illuminated the cleared platform, bright yellows and whites that marked the designations for left and right positioning of aircraft visible once again. The lights lit up just enough of the air above them to catch the unarmed paladin swaying above the warehouse before the bullhorn it was attached to repositioned to land.

The Paladin detached itself from the magnetic locks clamped around their anchors as it touched down, making its way off the platform and staggering off to the side. Following suit, the bullhorn dropped its landing gear and touched down onto the concrete. Emerald rushed to the cabin when the sliding door opened, Abu and Iago, set to revolvers, in each hand. When the first to emerge was the man in red, Emerald trained her weapons on him, squaring him off. "Don't. Move."

"Alright officer, I give up. No more flying without a permit for me." Dante said, raising his hands above his head, a crooked grin on his face.

"What? No, shut up. Where is Cinder?" She aimed the two at his head and cocked their hammers.

"Your boss is fine. Just resting up after our little chat."

Her eyes narrowed on his grin. "What happened? Was that red light you?"

"Stop humoring him, Emerald. Put your weapons down. And kill the lights! We don't want any more attention on this location." From the cabin the orders came with a hint of exhaustion. Making her way out of the cabin behind him, Cinder dragged herself out of the bullhorn, her hair and dress disheveled, and her movements stiff. Holding onto the side of the sliding door, she steadied herself, straightening her dress. Emerald holstered her weapons to stand with her leader, the lights dimming beside them.

"Cinder, what happened? I was-."

"Enough questions. Emerald, organize a small intel task force for the Stampede. Leave reports on the recruiting in my office tomorrow morning. I need to make a meeting tonight. I can not be bothered. Understand?" Cinder said, taking shaky steps across the platform to the hanger.

"But, ma'am, th-." She started.

"Understand, Emerald?" Cinder said, not stopping to turn around.

"…yes ma'am." Emerald said. When she looked to Dante to give him one last glare, the look his piercing blue eyes gave her caught a lump in her throat. The piercing blue of his gaze held her under a weight she was all to familiar with. She would watch hundreds of well dressed, well fed people give her the same pitying look when they walked past her on the streets, a comfortable alternative the ones who wouldn't look at her at all.

"What do you want?" she spat, turning her head.

She heard the twisting of heels on concrete behind her. "Nothing. Your boss is one hell of a haggler though. Talked me down to only a handful of people to instead of the whole outfit for payment, even after I shook 'em up for a better deal."

Emerald glanced over her shoulder to him, his back to her and hands resting behind his head. "So that red light, that was you?"

"Yup. A little trick I hrk-." A wet thud cut him off.

Confused, Emerald turned to see the thin blade of Neo's parasol sticking out through the man's back, inches away from her chest. She backed up, mind still possessing what she was looking at when he turned to look back at her, Roman and Neo slouched against each other staring daggers at Dante.

"Still good. Good." he said, turning back to face the two off. "And I think this belongs to you?"

Neo pulled the blade out before slamming it hilt deep into his gut again.

"Ok, I deserved that. But two is all you're getting out of me." Dante said, pulling out the blade and tossing it back to her.

"Yeah, you did," Roman said, emptying his hat onto the floor, its contents leaving a wet slap in the dark. "I need to wash this before the memory stains."

Watching the crime duo shuffle into the warehouse, Emerald stared at the twice impaled Stampede, standing and grinning at the White Fang moving to put away the returned equipment. Expecting him to fall over, instead, he started walking towards the barracks opposite the warehouse. She moved to follow him, trailing behind.

"Are you… not dying?" she asked, watching the holes in his back close.

"That'll be the day." He said. "I'm gonna take a shower. We got a date tomorrow after all."

Emerald stopped; her jaw open. "Uhhh…What?"

"Yup. You, me and your grumpy boss are going out for pizza and negotiations. Gonna chat up a storm on why I shouldn't rip this little show to threads. Can't have anything too bad happen under my watch after all. Better rest up, kid."

**D**

The large communal shower room of the second largest barrack, once a professional grade kitchen, held an organized mess of pipes and hoses connecting heating tanks fashioned from repurposed gas lines and rows of showerheads, four to a tank. In addition to curtains separating each stall, the closet full of soap and towels, and the community laundry basket the White Fang also managed to install three bathtubs at the far end of the room connected to one heat tank.

After stripping down, leaving his cloths tucked inside his coat and stowed beside the laundry, Dante cleaned himself off in the showers and headed for the bath. Heating up a tub with King Cerberus, he let himself soak in peace and quiet in the dark. Light and sound plumed in his outstretched hand when he summoned his namesake, its molten core exposed. Holding the massive blade in reverse, Dante stared into the jewel that made its pommel, the crimson glow of his blade bathing the perfect amulet into a deeper red. He could just barely make out his reflection, his slicked back hair and clean face looked so much like his twin brother in the dim light.

Darkened eyes stared down at him, bringing him back to Mallet island. The darkened eyes of his brother bared down on him, his body and soul under the puppeteering of Mundus. He dismissed his blade, reaching his hand out into the dim light feeling the faint aura of his brother in the atmosphere around him, as weak as it was fighting those kids, as weak as it was flying to Vale, and as weak as it was when Vergil fled through a portal.

He turned his hand and stared at his palm, the cut his brother left him long healed. A part of Dante looked forward to seeing Vale, the glimpses of the kingdom he caught between missions were filled with bright sights and lively streets. What was left of Temen-Ni-Gru and Red Grave city slipped a bitter laugh from his lips, his nephew's words echoing through the ruins. "…other ways, huh kid? Well I would love some ideas right now."

**RWBY**

The inside of Beacon's infirmary held some of the most advanced technology outside of Atlas for the care of students injured in combat training and encounters with grim. Sterile rooms dedicated to advanced aura scanners and hospital grade medical equipment lined the halls of the small facility, its reputation for taking being the third most costly department in all of the academy. The room team RWBY were assigned to was one of the handful of rooms solely dedicated to full team recuperation, with wall mounted terminals directly linked to the school's acting physician, beds capable of reading auras and its own crash cart. Despite all this, the sleep Yang found herself in gave her little rest, her dreams painted in black and red.

_Yang runs through the ruins of a city towards a tower at its center. She faces the form another, so familiar, standing across from her. They clash, their strikes swifter then the falling rain, and she fails to beat them again. She falls to the floor, a pool of her own blood, and sinks in. Underneath the surface, staring down at her, a beast, its mouth full of sharp teeth and wings filled with fire, grabs both of her arms from the surface and stuffs them into its mouth. Before it can bite down, she pulls her hands free and falls into an abyss, black feathers swarming around her. _

"…sh…oing…?"

"Sh…aur…fine…'

_Yang turns and twists, grasping at the storm of feathers for anything to hold on to. A hand, clad in dark steal, grabs her by the throat and pulls her from her fall only to be held against a hard stone wall. A dark knight hoists her off her feet, her pulse throbbing against the grip. She struggles, weaker and weaker, as the knight looks on; helmet fashioned in the shape of a gaunt face with two curved horns. Something slips from around her neck, a silver amulet with a bright red gem. The sight of it sends the knight reeling back, a longing taking hold of both of their hearts. _

"She doesn't…shouldn't…"

"She may…it cant be…"

_Yang falls to the ground, her home burning around her, hands around her throat. She tries to breath, but something blocks her throat. With a heave, black feathers spill out of her mouth to the floor as she stumbles to get out. Another heave topples her over as she passes their family portrait, another at the front door. Wiping tears and matted feathers from her face, she sees the two hooded figures standing in front of a small grave stone near the edge of a cliff. _

"It's already been…do you think…?"

"Her injuries aren't…her current state…"

_Yang reaches out, another heave of feathers brings her to her knees. The feathers mope around her, swallowing her into the ground. She watches them walk away, stepping over the tombstone and standing at the cliffs edge. She is nearly swallowed whole, her head and arms left to claw at the dirt desperate to stop them, desperate to make them stay. The taller one turns from the cliff and pulls off its hood. Black hair falls around them, covering their face. The smaller figure turns back next, pulling their hood down. Piercing blue eyes bare down from above, the cloaked figure standing over her with a smug grin. "Over easy; think you can get the 'Yang' of even that?" _

"I think she's waking—"

"Aaahhhhh!" Yang bolted up in her bed, her arms clutching around herself. She heard the room echoing her surprise as her eyes creaked open, the dim lights of the room swimming with color and motion. Blinking brought the world into focus, and she saw the small crowd of her friends stood back in shock around her, a rapid beeping filling the newly settled silence. Both team RWB and JNPR stared back at Yang, all dressed in their uniforms.

The room held their shared silence, the beeping of the medical machines the only thing filling the void. The only person Yang couldn't recognize, a woman in light red scrubs standing beside her monitors, broke the silence with a step towards Yang, but before she could say anything, Ruby sprang from the crew to her sister's side and wrapped her arms around her sister.

"Yang! You're awake!" she said, burying her face into Yang's side.

"Miss. Rose, please be gentle! Your sister is still recovering." The woman in scrubs said.

Ruby was quick to understanding, stepping back from her sister, her arms reeling back. "Oh gosh! Sorry Yang, are you ok?"

"Um, yeah why wouldn't I b-." Yang tried to push her bangs back into place only to have her bandaged hands in front of her face.

"Miss. Xiao Long, please don't try to move your hands right now." the woman said, leaning over Yang's bed to catch her attention. "I'm nurse Alph. You have… been in a bit of a fight recently and your hands were seriously injured in the prosses."

Yang looked from the nurse to Ruby and her friends, their faces pent in remorse. She looked to her hands again; thick layers of bandages covered them until enough to look like mittens of cloth. She could feel each finger wrapped individually underneath, restricted enough to halt movement but loose enough to breath. "But…" she said, trying to make sense of it all.

Yang looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder to find Ruby: her eyes barley holding back tears and a smile keeping just as poorly. Weiss moved next to her, holding her team leader's shoulder and sharing in a somber look. Blake flinched when Yang brought her gaze to her, looking down and holding tight fists over her mouth. She stood along the wall beside the members of JNPR across the room from Yang's bed.

"I-I'm sorry. I can't." Blake said, turning for the door.

Reaching out after Blake, Yang shifted in her bed to follow, her hand slipping on the bedrail when she tried getting up. "Blake, wait."

The nurse moved to block Yang, holding onto the bedrail. "Miss. Xiao Long, please don't try to leave the bed yet, we still need to-."

"Ugh! Move!" Yang pawed at her sheets with her hands, only able to shuffle the fabric around. She pushed a leg over the side of the bed. "This isn't-"

"Xiao Long! Control yourself, please!" A shrill cry turned Yang's head to see Weiss cradling Ruby's head on her shoulders, the girl's hood tucked tightly over her muffled sobbing.

"Ruby, I'm-." Yang turned at the edge of her bed trying to stand, but the blanket tangled with her legs sending her to the ground. Cold seeped through the thin medical gown she found herself in, the hard floor catching her with its laminated tiles. A sharp tugging pain yanked at her wrist and she noticed for the first time, the tubes and pads that attached her to machines, now giving a flat tone to the room.

Around her, cries of shock and alarm sounded from the everyone as they gathered around. Yang swatted away the hands that tried to help her fumbling on the floor. When she managed to sit up against the side of the bed the nurse and Blake were kneel beside her, the nurse leaning over her to hold her wrists.

"Ma'am, you need to stop struggling. We don't know how your hands will take the strain." The nurse said.

Looking from the nurse to Blake, Yang caught a glimpse of her partner's face: eyes heavy with shame sat on bags muddied by tears and unkept liner, her lips sputtering apology after apology. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sent you in. I'm so sorry."

Yang bolted to her feet, her eyes red and aura flaring her hair. "Can everyone just chill the fuck out; my hands are fine!" Biting down onto the cloth of her left palm, Yang ripped off the wrappings and spat them onto the floor, after, using her freed hand to tear off the bandages on the right. She flexed her hands in front of her, felt muscle and tendon strain in smooth unison; curling her hands into fists. Bringing her knuckles together, a chorus of popping and cracking filled her ears with relief. Her relief caught in her throat when she noticed the white scars scored in streaks her knuckles on each hand.

"What?" Yang said, trying her best to read the assortment of wide-eyed faces. She ran her hands through her hair and let her eyes settle on Ruby, her sister staring up at her from across the bed in Weiss's arms. "…What happened?"

**VGVG**

**CEDCED**

Dusk loomed its amber skies over the festivities of downtown Vale, the roads filled with small tents in the colors of the kingdoms, all hosting the array of fair foods and games. Frying meats from Vacuo filled the air alongside the lights and sounds of Atlas tech demos of toys modeled after Amenity arena. People, eager to make their way from one stall to the next, walked along the busy streets dressed in the traditional clothing of their nations. Blue kimonos of Mistral mingled alongside the scarves and robes of orange and green seen in the old plays of Vale and Vacuo; white fur coats of old Atlas traveling in groups.

The commotion of the streets called to Dante, taking the time to weave in and out of crowds surrounding tents that caught his eye, his escort trailing behind him. The White Fang lieutenant, dressed in an orange vest and pants, struggled to move through the crowds. Standing at the curb, Dante watched the man wedge his way though, arms raised to protect the orange mask on his face; a largely plain thing, its only defining feature three swords that shaped the eyeholes.

"Never took you as the festive type." Dante said, the lieutenant catching up with him.

"Not. It is to blend in." the man adjusted the mask while they walked, tightening the straps that supported it.

"This is some party, think Cinder's gonna mind if we make a rain check?" He watched a band of kids running around with toy swords.

The lieutenant gaze lingered on the child they were chasing. "I do not think we should do that."

"Oh, I'm sure it's giving her more time to weave her little story." Dante watched a band playing from an orange tent. A hoe down of wood winds and strings. "This is one hell of a party. There a game coming up?"

"The Amity festival"

"Riiight. I take it you're an orange fan?"

"This mask is of Vacuo. The kingdom."

"Fancy. That where you from?" Dante said, coats showcased inside of a boutique they passed catching his eye.

"…No, they would not let where I am from to join this '_party_'." The last words spat from his mouth.

"Touchy subject, my bad." Happy to let the small talk end, he watched another group of kids run by, their tails and ears something Dante came to understand only recently.

After almost nodding asleep to his thoughts, the sound of a shower head brought him back to the barracks. Between the dark lights and it being the middle of the night, his half-awake mind figured he'd left it on only to find the shower occupied. Light glowing dots, a soft red, stared up at him from the near dark before a high-pitched cry pierced the silence between them. It didn't take long for him to readjust his eyes to see in the dark, or for the other members of the White Fang to come to their friend's aid, but the eyeful of wings, tails and feathers on bare bodies was enough to make the lesson stick.

Dante and the lieutenant rounded the corner on the sidewalk leading them into the next leg of attractions for the festivities. The street they faced at the top of a hill overlooking the rest of Vale, in its view the evening sun painted the city's grid of greys and greens with amber light. The waters to the west of Vale held a towering figure in the distance that caught Dante's eye, but before he could ask about it, the lieutenant moved ahead down the hill.

"We are almost there." He said, waving back to Dante.

At the bottom of the hill, the man led him into a small café. The inside held as much festive charm as the streets, with trails of flags the color of each kingdom streamed along the ceiling to corners of the room adorned with banners dedicated to the eightieth Vytal festival, an outline of a large cylindrical shape bearing an equally large crystal structure on the bottom. Patrons of the café were notably less festive, wearing the casual shirts and jackets seen on any day in Vale with the ornamental mask seen here and there among them.

Dante ducked underneath a low hanging banner before making his way to the register where the lieutenant talked to a leopard eared man. In the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of the piece of paper his escort handed to the man, a small note with the White Fang insignia on it. The cashier lead them to a table near the window, Cinder and Emerald already sitting alongside each other. Dante took his seat in front of the window and sat with the chair's back to his side, giving him a view of the street with a turn of the head. Turning away from the street, he leaned an elbow onto the table, crossed his legs and met Cinder's glare from across the table.

"You came here disguised in that?" she said, a slight edge in her usually smooth voice.

Dante ran a hand through his blackened hair. "Some of my best work yet. I even remembered to change the scruff, too. Would have loved to show you the whole ensemble, but this guy wouldn't have it." Besides his hair, the only thing different about Dante's appearance was the lack of his signature coat and the months of grime that accompanied him do to a small snafu in the laundry.

Cinder gave the lieutenant a look, he shrugged. "He changed it black. That is all."

"And what's with your costume?" Dante said, pointing to the matching black jackets and white armbands Cinder and Emerald wore. "Can't call it festive. Can't call it casual. You sure that's the get up what you wanna get caught in?"

Cinder pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a steady breath before looking back to Dante. "My operation is a finely tuned machine balanced between windows of opportunity and the work I can manage between them." She took a long sip from a mug beside her, its thin red straw unused on the table. After setting the emptied mug down, she raised her hand and a waiter dressed in an apron and green mask rushed over with another fresh mug and a brown folder. "I am still in this 'get up' because I have had to reorganize everything _else_ that was planned for this day around establishing your taskforce and this meeting. Do you understand?"

Dante watched the waiter leave their table. "My taskforce. This place?"

"You catch on fast. Good. Then this shouldn't take too long." Cinder waived her hand to the café around them. "This is one of our nodes. We have a number of them across Vale. Some for keeping an eye on the pulse things others to transport resources. The fact that this one is also a functioning café is just a bonus." She took the straw and placed it into her coffee, stirring it with one hand and raising the folder in the other. "Would you like to know what they found?"

Dante leaned back in his chair and grinned. He had to admit; the girl wasn't half bad. He'd want to keep this place in one piece so no fireworks and she already had some bait on a string. How many times had Lady gotten him to do jobs for her with less than that; he couldn't count. Now she just needed the magic word. "That can wait. We came to chit chat about your evil plans and these grand forces you got towering overhead. I'd hate to take any more time so let's cut right to the chase. What kind of demons you got pulling strings here?"

A chuckle from beside him pulled his attention to Emerald, the girl quick to realize the attention she'd brought onto herself from both Dante and Cinder. She straightened in her chair, fixing her baggy eyes to the drink in front of her. "Sorry." She said.

"Something funny about demons, kid?" Dante said.

"No. It's just. The fairytale monsters. I thought you would have said assholes or fat cats." "'Demons' is just so dramatic." Emerald brought a sheepish eye to Cinder looking for support. When she found none, she brought a reddening face back to her cup. "Sorry ma'am."

"Yes… Well. There are many parties at play in Vale at the moment." Cinder said, looking back to Dante. "The 'demons' we are after may be some of the greatest in the land. Tell me, Dante. What do you know of the final battles of the Great War? A favorite story perhaps?"

His grin came just that much more uneasy as eyes from around the table watched him, waiting for a response. "The great war. Can't say I do. Was never to into history. Now, demonology. There's something I know. You people ever juggle a furry and a blitz at the same time? That's a story." Blank stares and one gut feeling told him enough, but what Cinder said next settled it.

"No. I don't think I have. We are talking metaphoric demons, yes?"

Dante slouched against the backboard of his chair, giving an airless chuckle. He'd thought it was strange. All this time hanging out in the bad end of town and not a single whiff of demonic presence anywhere. He told himself it was just a coincidence. Just interference from Vergil's crazy aura. But no. He tilted his head enough to see Cinder raising an eyebrow. Whether confused or just annoyed, he figured both made more sense. "Tell your boys in back to whip me up a pizza. We're gonna be here a while."

**RWBY**

"Ok, you two ready?"

In the center of one of Beacon's larger training room, Jaune and Pyrrha stood back to back, each holding their shields out in front of them with both hands. "Ready!" they said, steadying themselves for the attacks to come.

"Ok! Everyone ready…" Ruby slid the magazine into Crescent Rose while watching her team take their marks. Ready to run, Blake and Yang waited at opposite sides of Jaune and Pyrrha with a few yards between themselves and the defenders. Outside of their radius, Weiss stood, heels touching and toes pointed at ninety degrees, her Myrtenaster's chambers set for their final drill. Behind her, Ruby used her scroll to activate the dome shield imbedded in the floor, translucent blue energy streaming out of the metallic circle surrounding the training area into a dome. Ruby jabbed the head of her scythe into the opaque barrier, feeling the blade resisted by the energy. Satisfied with the level she'd set it to, she turned to the floor eager to start.

"And the live fire practice run for my new Stampede stopping move is a go!" She chambered the quarter power training round, her hands shaking with excitement around the bolt. Using a round, she shot herself into the air, skirting the top of the dome, and landed at the opposite side of the Jaune and Pyrrha facing Weiss.

"Excessive, Ruby." Weiss said, waiving a finger. "Remember, we need to save as much dust as we can now that there are limited-"

"Weiss, you're killin' me!" Ruby cried, her shoulders slumping.

The heiress let a light laugh escape her, Ruby responding with a quick stick of her tongue before giggling back. Recomposed, she waived for Ruby to continue.

"Ok! And…Rodeo!"

With that, Blake and Yang started to run around Jaune and Pyrrha in a clockwise circle, at the same time, Ruby and Weiss starting to move in the opposite direction. In the center, the two defenders braced themselves. After the girls moved halfway around the circumference of their arch, Ruby called for stage two of Rodeo. Yang and Blake, forming the inner circle opened fire on the defenders with their weapons, the quarter powered rounds sparking against their shields and flaking against their auras. Ruby noticed Jaune's shield was a quarter circle farther then it should have been, Pyrrha's own defense staying in pace.

"Yang, slow down. You're falling out of sync with Blake. Don't push yourself!" Ruby called from the outer circle. "Weiss, ready when you are."

Watching the openings being created by Yang and Blake, Weiss readied her black glyphs while running with Ruby. After watching the defenders for another rotation, Weiss called out her shot, black glyphs ensnaring the legs and arms of Jaune and Pyrrha while looking away from her, Blake and Yang continuing their cycle but halting their barrage.

As soon as Ruby saw Weiss's trap land she jumped into the air, lined herself up and fired, sending her flying toward the center of the circle with Crescent Rose poised to strike. Jaune tucked his head into his chest, letting out a squeal as the blade came closer. Before she could follow suit, Pyrrha watched the blade collapse into its compact form. By the time the attack would have landed, the folded metal brick swung around her arms, Ruby sliding to a stop beside her.

"And finish!" She said, completely collapsing her scythe and stowing it at her belt on her back. "That was great everyone; the Stampede won't know what hit him."

With that, she dismissed the dome, letting them all gather what towels and drinks they left at the benches by the inner wall. Weiss went to sit next to Pyrrha and Jaune near the middle of the bench with Yang and Ruby's things beside them. Closer to the edge, Blake sat drinking out of her water bottle. Ruby caught up with her sister as she took a seat on the benches, a smile blooming from ear to ear as she sat next to her. "What do you think, Yang? I bet it'll show him, right?"

Yang put down the towel she was wiping her head with, her usual grin met her sister's smile. "It's super brutal. The guy won't know what hit him." She beat her fist into her glove and shot her sister a grin.

The urge to shudder bubbled in her gut, but Ruby ignored it. "Brutal. Yeah." She beat her fist into her own hand, copying her sister. "Ooh! That gives me an idea." She stood up to address everyone. "Ok, after the break lets get into stage three! I've got a new-" A tug at her cloak cut her off as she bent over to keep her balance, behind her, Yang tossed the red cape over her sister's head and chuckled.

"Come on, Ruby. That's enough or we're gonna miss the Arrival festival." Yang looked to the rest of her friends on the bench for agreement only to find none of them willing to meet her gaze. Her laughing wound down leaving her to give a confused grin. "Err. What?"

Jaune and Pyrrha exchanged concerned glances between themselves and Weiss, the heiress looked down the bench to see Blake turned away. Ruby pulled off her cloak from over her head and turned to look down to her sister. "We're on 'on-campus suspension', remember?"

Yang's grin turned into a grimace with the recollection of Ozpin's visit. Soon after everyone told her about the events of last night, the headmaster paid everyone a visit in the infirmary. It was a quick thing. Himself and Goodwitch with some of the other faculty staying in the hall. The relief he expressed to find Yang healed was colored with the same stern tone that filled his warning.

"Although reckless, your actions have brought a number of things to light. Despite the council's disinterest." The last parts slipping in his breath. "None the less, the cries of the misinformed demand repercussions for the ones who caused major damage to the city and a multi hour traffic jam."

"Oh. Crap." Yang took another drink of water. "Thought I dreamed that part."

On the bench, Weiss fixed her hair back into place. "Can he even do that? 'Campus arrest' sounds awfully heavy handed."

"At least we still get to go on missions." Ruby said, not missing an annoyed sigh from Yang. "And the dance is on campus, too."

"Eh. It'll only be for a few weeks. We'll just have to break some more rules to get to the White Fang, right Blake?" Yang leaned back to see Blake at the opposite end of the bench.

Blake looked back to her with a faint smile peaking over her shoulder but said nothing. Instead, she stood up, her towel around her neck, and picked up her training bag. "I'm going to shower now. I wanted to do some reasurch in the library before it closed."

"I'll come too." Yang said, standing up.

Ruby took a step back from Yang, surprised by her sister's sudden change of heart. "Wait, but we-." Ruby was cut off by a tugging at her wrist. Beside her, Jaune held her sleeve while Weiss and Pyrrha shook their heads.

If Blake noticed any of this, she didn't show it, instead nodding towards Yang before leaving. Ruby watched her older sister grab her things and head out, turning to give Ruby an apologetic look before heading out the door. The buzz of the sealing's florescent lights filled the training room, the hydraulics of the sliding door coming to a stop. Standing in front of the bench Ruby stood, her hand around her shoulder. A light tapping pulled Ruby's attention back to the training room. On the bench Weiss moved over to make enough room for Ruby between her and Pyrrha, patting the spot. "You're scrunching up again." She said.

Ruby's eyes shifted, moving her hand away from her mantle as she took a seat between them. "Well, that didn't go so bad, right?"

Weiss shook her head folding her hands in her lap. "Not bad, but I certainly would have saved training for after a talk, even if Yang didn't want to."

"It's never been a problem for her before. This one time, after she fell from a tree and fractured her arm, the first thing she did when we got back home was climb the same tree to the top." The memory of Yang with her cast covered in sap at the top of the tree came to Ruby's mined, her sister's smile crooked from ear to ear.

"I think they just need their time together." Pyrrha said leaning forward. "Blake must still feel guilty for last night. Yang was in a very bad condition, wasn't she? I'm sure after they straighten things out everything will be alright."

Ruby remembered hands raw with blotches of purple swelling underneath bloodied fingers. The skin around Yang's knuckles peeled open. "Yeah." She said, fighting last night's nausia from coming back. "At least she's better now."

**CD**

Cinder prepared allot for this day. On top of coordinating with the other nodes for spare operatives in intelligence and creating a small network they could work on; she had also made plans for evacuation of Roman's compound in the scenario that negotiations with the Stampede fail. A signal to give from Emerald and a reasonable window of opportunity to call for an evacuation of backup. She had to get Roman involved, an inconvenience she could live with, to coordinate taskforces to safehouses and what they would be responsible for. Too much relied on perfect execution for her to be sloppy. Equipment and resources would need to be invested now to ensure the she succeeded.

Her planning didn't stop there. Next, she needed to organize the perfect portfolio. Enough broad details on their operations in Vale and Mt. Glenn to chew on, but not enough to jeopardize truly sensitive information. She would need the Lieutenant to assess it durring the day for any information that would need to be avoided while she was at Beacon maintaining her cover. Rudimentary classes she could breeze through would give her time to review Mercury's latest batch of coverup reports on last night's small rampage before distributing them to their news fronts. Thanks to their higher connections, information hasn't been released by the security forces that would be too incriminating giving them the chance to be the first to shape the story.

Now, after returning from Beacon and revising her portfolio, she could work on her favorite part; the presentation. Cinder spent the time left to form a brilliant tapestry of cause and effect planned to move someone like the Stampede to her side. Her rougher approach wouldn't work of course. Their little 'ride' was an easy enough lesson in that, but it did tell her plenty about the man to work with. What she hadn't expected was the hour spent arguing about the basic facts of their world.

Cinder rubbed the growing pain in her neck, the will to uphold her professional composure failing to throwing up all her plans and just fighting him. All of her preparation was already out the window, she might as well have the satisfaction of throwing him out one too, but the all to recent memory of a world turned red kept her at bay. She couldn't understand how that power could be held by such a man as him. All the more reason to follow through on her orders. Beside her, Emerald and the Lieutenant were near their wits end almost as much as her. Emerald leaned back in her chair, chewing on a straw, ice melting in the empty glass in front of her. The lieutenant lifted his elbows off of the table and pulled his seat forward, straightened himself and adjusted his mask. "We are falling behind, no?" he asked her.

Cinder managed the remains of herself and looked back to the man of the past two hours. "What confuses you now, Dante?"

Across the table from her the Red Stampede folded another slice of pizza in half and took a bite, crumbs tumbling over his blue shirt as he leaned back. Righting himself, he wiped tomato the sauce from his face as he spoke, still chewing. "Ok, let's say your plan goes all the way: Ghira believes you guys are turning a new leaf, everyone buys the robot malfunction thing and the grimm you bring in don't go out of hand. Even if you asked real nicely after the big battle, who's to say they don't just kick you out? You have been taking all their stuff. Dust, right? Aren't they gonna be a little sore about that?"

Cinder closed her eyes as a small fleck of food flew from his mouth and landing onto the table. "It may seem that way to you, but our operations have been discreet enough to pull little attention away from the Vytal festival. We came close to being discovered only once, but the Breaking greatly aided our escape. Few people have the evidence to trace any criminal activity in Vale back to the White Fang." She said, opening her eyes just in time to see him take another bite. "At most, a crime spree headed by one of the most notorious criminals in Remnant."

"Of course. So, Mr. Personality does what he does and pulls all the attention away. But that doesn't explain his little speech last night. The guy sounded like he was out for blood."

Emerald straightened in her chair, tiered eyes narrowing onto him. "How could you catch all of that but still miss your cue?"

"Roman's…" Cinder raised a hand to silence Emerald's interruption as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Methods may lead to some inconsistencies for us to manage, but there haven't been any defectors from the Vale batches and recruitment is up significantly. He plays his role well enough."

Dante looked to the lieutenant. "What about you, macho man? This is your people after all."

The lieutenant responded to him with a dry stare before breaking the silence. "Adam does well with these recruits. High Leader Khan has made no complaints. They will be ready when the time comes."

Ok. So that's the who, what and how. But, why?" He looked to Cinder. "Big man makes enough sense, but I don't take you as the type for charity work."

Cinder let a sigh escape from her mouth, happy to see that some of her planning wouldn't go to waist. She straightened herself in her seat and gathered what will she had left into a smile. "My employer sees the White Fang's mission as a unique opportunity to overtake an opponent that has secured a number of very valuable assets. Someone in a position that we would like for ourselves. I can assure you that these things are of little impact to the world in comparison to our partners."

"So what, this is all business to you? That sounds like one hell of a stone for two birds." He leaned back into his chair and let out a breath. "Business and politics. Now those are whole other kinds of demons."

"Then allow me to make this much more appealing to you." Cinder pulled a small business card from her jacket's inner pocket and placed it on top of the tan folder, pinning it with her finger. "What if you could search the four kingdoms for your brother all at once?"

He cocked his head to her. "…I'm listening."

"Your support so far has earned you this node for a month, enough time to scour Vale once over. Continue to support us and I can increase that number to three facilities dedicated to your cause." Cinder pinched the card between her fingers and held it in front of her face. "However, if you want a wider net to cast, my employer has gained an interest in your skills and _abilities_." She let her power flare, an amber aura filling her eyes. Beside her, the Lieutenant tensed, leaning forward in his chair. To her left, Emerald grinned but made no move from her seat.

As Cinder expected, The Red Stampede ignited his own power, and to gross excess. He grinned, a crimson aura engulfing his form, its depths swimming with the same raw strength that made her own feel like a leaf swept up in a storm. "Yes. That ability." At the same time, Emerald gave a confused look to her, one gone unnoticed.

He leaned back into his chair, the gravity of his aura disappearing. "You tell your boss what they're getting into? Can't promise you'll be employed for long if I don't like what they have to say."

"I have." She said, setting the card back onto the tan folder and letting her own power settle. "They requested that I offer you this opportunity despite the risks. In fact, I'm sure they are more aware of you then you think."

"What, they the president of my fan club or something?"

Cinder couldn't help but grin. "I thought your power felt familiar on the bullhorn, but now I am even more certain. Your little stroll along the Sanus coast was hard to ignore. I take it the Breaking was your brother then? The power there felt similar, but not so similar."

She watched Dante's own grin falter into a grimace as he turned away. The glance of guilt she caught enough to know she had him on the ropes. He looked out of the window to the street. Behind him, the glow from the café cast light enough to see blurred silhouettes of pedestrians walking by through the frosted glass. Streaks of green shot into the air with the sounds of uproar and applause bleeding through the glass. "Right, sorry about that. Didn't mean to."

Cinder's eyes drifted up to the moon, its web of cracks and clusters surrounded by a vale of stars that brushed shoulders with the next volley of fireworks; light blue bursting all around. "It is amazing that they still hold this festival with all that's gone on, don't you think? I thought our plans were ruined after the streak, but here they are, enjoying themselves as if nothing happened."

The mop of black hair shifted, and Cinder could just make out still blue eyes glancing back to her. "I'm sure those kids from last night are having a rough time. That whole thing ended pretty messy for them."

"Yes. I will admit that was poorly done. But despite what you may think of me, what I've done, all my efforts have been for the big picture. The people out there have no idea what's coming and even if they did, they could do little about it. The grim, their lives and these four kingdoms are enough trouble for them to deal with already. The world needs people who can be strong for others now more than ever."

Dante turned back to her in his chair. With a flick of her finger, the card slid across the table until he pinned it with his hand. On the front, embossed in mat gold, strands of wheat twisted to form the name 'Carcosa'. "Because, unfortunately, our world is also full of people who would take advantage of that vulnerability, that ignorance. People who look down from high towers and play with the strings of others. To them, the control is an end in and of itself and they will use that power freely."

Cinder pushed the tan folder to the middle of the table and pulled it open. Inside, papers and documents clipped together came to light; all the documents on their efforts in Vale. "It may seem like 'just business' from here, Dante, but Carcosa is working to stand in the way of those who want the world for themselves." As he leaned forward, she shut the folder, keeping her hand on top. She held his gaze, standing out of her seat, her smile now back to a steady line. "Someone with your skills and abilities could be of great help to us. This opportunity is offered to few, but those who accept can do great things all over the world. Continue to work with me and you'll have more then one node to further your search and what resources we can spare." She gestured towards the card in his hand. "Work with Carcosa, and you could have the four kingdoms under your eye."

Cinder stood, waiting for a response from him. She watched him flipping the card between his fingers, the intrigue in his eyes cooled into a steady glare. In her peripherals, Emerald and the Lieutenant watching them both. Cinder couldn't tell if they were as nervous as her or if she'd managed to pull any of them in with her speech.

Dante made the first more, lifting himself out of his chair, head down, the business card rolling between the fingers of his right hand. She straightened, the top of his head coming down to her eye level. "Boy, this sure is getting complicated, and as much as I'd appreciate the help," He turned his head up. In the warm glow of the café's lights, he gave her a simple smile, the guarded lines of his face easing into a tired gaze, one she wasn't expecting to see so soon. He glanced to the window, orange light filling the sky. "I'm gonna need to sleep on that offer."

A red haze filled the void where Dante once stood before vanishing along with him. Cinder watched the wisps fade, the confusion from her recognition and the abrupt end of her negotiations still catching up with her. _Maybe just coincidence? A trick of the lights? Maybe making mountains out of nothing. What happened? Too much time. No focus. Her proposal lacked effect. She will not be pleased. He is unaccounted for. I need to…_

A tug at her shoulder pulled her out of her thoughts as Emerald brought her back to the present, her hand still on her shoulder when Cinder turned to look at her. "Ma'am. He's gone." Emerald said letting go of her shoulder.

Cinder let go of the breath she didn't realize she was holding, the weight of the day crashing onto her shoulders all at once. She was tired, without sleep for longer then she wanted to think and there was still more to do before the day was done. Boiling at the bottom of her heart, wisps of dread threatened to take her mind through the consequence of her failure. Then, she looked to the moon and a familiar vale of calm held her still. It was her favorite thing growing up, the moon. Cinder would wish on it every night as it crested the hills from her stepmother's cottage near their village. Even after being found by Carcosa, she would make time at night to thank the moon for her wish come true. Now, years have passed since she'd even given the moon a second thought. She wondered if the little girl from her village would have ever thought of making it so far. She wondered if that little girl staring at the moon would have ever dreamed of making it so far.

Cinder took a breath, straightening her back and clearing her throat. _I Haven't failed yet. Far from it._ She turned to face the rest of the café, the White Fang members still in their chairs, all looking to her table. Hardening her face, she met their gaze with a glare and spoke.

"This change nothing. Continue searching for the brother. With what you have seen of him today, I want you to filter your results. Add what you can to Roman's information before the end of the day. Go!" Cinder waived her hand sending the members to their work, scrolls and screens coming out from underneath the tables. "Emerald." She said, picking up the folders from the table. "Bring the car around and wait for me outside. I will be with you shortly."

"Yes, ma'am." She said, pulling out keys and moved to walk away, but stayed. On her face, the confusion she wore earlier. "Ma'am?"

Cinder, already flipping through pages in the folder, looked to her. Insubordination was never a problem with Emerald, her eagerness to please reliable. She frowned, closing the folder, her brittle gaze on the girl's red eyes. "Yes, Emerald?"

"Earlier, the uh. The Stampede." Emerald managed to hold her gaze for a moment, but her face shifted from confusion to a clear fluster and she looked away. "It's nothing."

Cinder sighed, closing her eyes. Letting the frustration from the day out on her wouldn't solve anything, she knew that well enough. When she opened them again, her gaze had softened enough to see Emerald ease herself. "Please, speak." She set the folder back onto the table.

"Th-thank you, ma'am. But it's just. Do we really need his strength so badly? There's hardly any there to begin with."

A cold sweat swept over Cinder, the pit of her stomach dropping under the chasm of difference between their aura. She kept her face still, but the was now hers. "What are you talking about? Didn't you feel it?"

Behind her, the Lieutenant stood. "Little to be felt. His aura barely escaped his form."

"Strands at best. I've seen people with broken aura's make more of a show then him. He's skilled and his semblance is like nothing I've ever seen, but you dwarf him in raw power easy, ma'am."

Cinder thought back to the reports and interviews they had gathered on the Red Stampede. From what she could remember, most mentioned skill, ability and strength, but none on his aura. Durring their first encounter, she thought of how his strength didn't reveal itself until he wanted it to, but she'd never thought to sense it then. If she had, would she have been able see the monster in front of her? "This…" Cinder said, her hand reaching for her scroll. "Is there a way to get to the roof?" she looked to the Lieutenant.

He nodded. "Why?"

"I need to make a call."

**BY**

Yang followed Blake through the empty halls of Vale, most of the students already left for the Arrival festival; the students that were left paid the pair little attention. Their walk was made in silence past the academic wing's ornate columns and up to the main hall connecting Beacon to its dorms. From the long stretch of windows along the walkway Vale's colorful lights shined from afar with Amity's blue dust gem glowing over the city, its decent from the night's sky shading the clouds around it in teal light.

"Amity to all." The celebration's greeting slipping her lips as she caught herself staring out the window. Ahead of her, Blake stopped to look to her and the window seeming to notice it for the first time. She looked back to Yang with a halfhearted smile.

"Amity to all."

Yang hadn't known Blake for long enough to know her like her sister. It took her three weeks and a fair amount of asking to get Blake to show her favorite book. Twice that to get her to talk about her life before Beacon. For all the small stories and little secrets Yang learned she new Blake never smiled when she didn't want to.

"Blake. You don't have to," She grit her teeth, struggling to find what to say. "What's wrong? I said I don't blame you for what happened so what's bugging you?"

The smile stayed, but Blake's eyes fell to the ground before she turned her back on Yang and moved forward, a strained tone in her voice. "Can't we get to our room first?"

"Ok, sorry." Yang said following behind her.

"Don't apologize to me."

Yang stopped. The frustration boiled under her skin where she tried to keep it. "What, I can't even say I'm sorry?"

"No." Blake kept walking. "You shouldn't have to."

She stood there, trying to make sense of what she just said. Ahead of her Blake turned the corner out of sight. "Wait, why not?"

No response. Yang ran down the hall, catching the corner with her shoulder just in time to see Blake closing the door to their room. Half expecting the door to be locked, was relieved to be able to open the door, inside Blake sat on the lower bunk of their bed, her bow already balled up in her hands. On top of her head two black cat ears pointed towards Yang while she looked at the black ribbon.

Their room was just as much of a mess as when they left for training, Yang's clothes from last night still on the floor around Blake and Ruby's skirt's bursting out of their drawer. Yang pulled the red cloak off from Ruby's bunk and sat on Weiss's bed across from her partner. "Blake, is this still about last night?"

Blake pulled at an end of the ribbon between her fingers, uneasy eyes looking between the cloth and Yang. "It's… complicated."

"Allot of things are getting complicated." Yang looked down at her own hands, full fingered gloves hiding the scars underneath. "But you don't have to face them alone anymore."

Across the room Yang saw an unease waiver on Blake's face. The faunas eased her shoulders forward letting the bundle of ribbon fall to the floor as she rested her hands on her knees. After a long breath she let out a dry sigh of air, drooping her head down; waves of her black hair tumbling over her shoulders. "It's not just last night."

"What do you mean?"

"I." The vale of black hair that was Blake tilted up towards her. "When I came to Beacon, I wanted to put the White Fang behind me. I told you that much already. Hurting innocent people. Being on the run. I never felt right about it but when I left. I…" Her ears flattened against the top of her head.

"I guess I felt like I was abandoning my family. Again."

The prickles of a cold sweat caught Yang by surprise, her hands clenched while her trademark smile faltered. The only one who knew of her mother here in Vale was Ruby and she knew her sister wouldn't tell that kind of tale about her. The thought of how similar Blake and her mother flashed in her head for only a moment. She was glad Blake wasn't looking up. "You. You had your reasons, Blake."

"I know. They were going too far and I couldn't stand it. But after I heard about them being in Vale and following a human, I couldn't believe it. What happened? Why? He would never let them; but there they were. Being treated like fodder again. And then I got all of you involved." She curled into herself, hands holding onto the side of her head as she bent over and her voice muffled. "It was stupid. I should have stayed out of it."

Yang pushed her mother issues to the back of her mind and moved to sit next to Blake, plopping onto the bed next to her. "You were doing what you thought was right. There's nothing wrong with that. And besides, I haven't heard anything about it on the news so what's the worst they could be doing?"

Blake peaked an eye up at Yang. "Right. Do you..." She brought her head out of her hands, the makeup smudged bags under her eyes were quick to remind Yang of all the sleep she could get in the infirmary. "Do you remember the plan? Why we were even out there last night?"

The confusion Yang felt was obvious enough on her face to give Blake an answer. Yang tried to remember anything from the past few days, but the best she could muster were foggy images and incoherent ideas. "The doc said short term amnesia so I'll remember at some point. You guys said we were hanging out around lower Vale when you saw the White Fang moving cargo, right?"

"The plan was supposed to be a secret. We couldn't tell you with everyone around."

"That explains a few things." Yang laid back onto Blakes bed, her arms behind her head and eyes on her partner. "Nobody hangs out in lower Vale."

She gave a dry laugh. "We were trying to figure out the White Fang's next move. You went to Junior's and I went to a White Fang meeting. They're planning something big, Yang. Something to do with whatever is east of Vale. And. Well. They've got him now, too." Blake turned to her partner, ducking her head under the top bunk, waves of black hair tumbling after her. Her eyes still caught the light underneath the shade giving them a soft amber glow that Yang couldnt look away from.

Yang felt her face flush red, suddenly aware of their closeness with one another. She grabbed a handful of her own golden hair and started to fiddle with it, hoping enough locks would hide the grin she could feel on her face. "Him. Riiight. Theee. The guy."

If Blake noticed her antics, she didn't show it, instead she turned her head away and laid down next to her. "The Red Stampede."

"Oh. Yeah." Yang felt herself deflate a little. In the infirmary when they tried to explain what happened to her, the topic of the Red Stampede would always be danced around. Yang figured her team was trying to be delicate about a sensitive topic for her, but now she wasn't so sure. "He got the jump on us, so what? If it was a straight fight, I'm sure we could take him."

Blake didn't respond, her silence hanging over them waiting to fall. "Blake?"

She turned her head, her hair bundling around her face, framing her in a vale of black. Her amber eyes holding Yang's own, but something else she couldn't pin was there. "It wasn't an ambush, Yang." As she spoke, her fingers entwined themselves in her hair. "I can't really say what it was. There was so much smoke and steam after he blocked Ruby's ice shots. But I. We. Were in the middle of another attack and I kept. You." Blake looked to Yang's hands, the full fingered gloves wound in gold and black. She didn't know when, but between them locks folded into one another. When Yang noticed she laughed and dropped the bundle she was toying with. "Sorry. Guess we're in another _hairy_ situation."

Behind her vale, Blake's face twisted, her eyes lighting up as she fought to keep down a growing grin. She took a handful of golden hair and tossing it back to her face. "Yang, this is serious." Blake sounded muffled, her hand over her mouth. "He took two team attack and shrugged them off like they were nothing." Blake shuddered; what ease showed on her face returned to their tired lines. "He shrugged of taking Gamble Shroud to the chest."

"What, like in the gut? No aura?"

"Ruby and Weiss saw it too. It just sank in. No aura or a flare or anything. He didn't even flinch when you. Well." Blake's eyes fell to look at Yang's hands.

Yang followed her gaze. "That how I got these then?" She said, holding her hands up in front of her.

Blake held out a hand to hers, pulling away before she could touch. "It was…" Yang saw fear welling from the depths of those amber eyes, an almost familiar sight. From the fog her memory she could see those same eyes looking up to her. She took Blake's hand into her own and held tight, fear gave way to surprise in her partner's face. Yang couldn't help but smile. A smile warm enough to ease the lines and bags looking up to her and plant a small smile of her own. Yang's heart skipped a beat as she saw Blake's cheeks grow scarlet. The moment ended when Blake pulled her hand away and curled up with her back to Yang. Yang worried she may have done something wrong until the Blake spoke. "You were amazing." She said. "We were all taken out in one move, but you managed to keep fighting. It was almost scary how hard you were hitting him. And your aura. I don't think I've ever seen one light up like that before."

"Sounds like I got some good hits in, at least that means he's not untouchable." Yang said.

"Maybe." Blake sighed, the rigid air in her voice going soft. "I'm glad you're ok."

Yang grinned, leaning over to hold onto Blake's shoulder and rock her. "Yup. I'm pretty much a badass."

Blake gave a dry laugh, swatting away her hand. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

Yang put her hand back on Blake's shoulder. "Sooo. We cool?"

"Yes." Blake said. "I just don't want anyone to get hurt because of me anymore."

"Cool. Cool."

"So, you'll talk to Ruby?"

Yang pulled her hand back, confused. "About what?"

Blake twisted over, an uneasy gaze peaking over her shoulder. "About calling off this whole White Fang hunt."

She gave a sigh and grinned. "Ruby can be pretty hardheaded, especially on things like this, but I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you. I-" Yang saw Blake's body tense, her partner's head shooting up to stare at the door, her ears flattened. Her nose crinkled as she leaned over Yang, hanging over her, strands of black tossed around them. Her eyes wide with fear.

"Blake?" Yang said, her face flushed red underneath her partner. "Yoouu cool?"

Blake didn't respond, instead arching her back and setting one foot onto the floor. Yang could feel something now, too. A heat in her that kept her heart racing along sending jitters down her arms. She thought it was just Blake, but there was an ache in her that pulled her attention away from her partner. Yang couldn't tell where, but it was getting closer. She reached a hand to Black, patting her on the shoulder. "Blake, what is that? What's happening?"

Blake gave Yang a quick glance before getting out of the bed and onto her feet, her full attention on Gamble Shroud. Her hands were frantic, her weapon shaking after being drawn from off the bookshelf beside their bed, a live magazine sliding in. "It's him."

"What? No way." Yang got to her feet; her gauntlets ready. "The Stampede?"

Blake looked back to the window above the shelf. Yang wasn't sure if she was getting ready to run or fight, but Blake turned back and reached for her bow. Tucking the gun blade under her arm she tied a rushed bow around her ears. "At the meeting he was there. I got a pretty clear smell of him when I almost got caught."

"You what?" Yang said.

Blake gave a frustrated sigh. "Cat faunas, it's normal."

A knock on the door froze them both, their weapons aimed at the door. Neither of them said anything. The urge to run filled Yang's heart, but what surprised her was the direction. She took a step forward and felt the rush send her heart pounding into her ears. Her arms stopped shaking and instead she could feel the scarred skin tighten around her knuckles. Before she could take another step, Blake's grabbed her arm, her wide eyes filled with a mix of fear and confusion. She pointed towards the window and tugged on Yang's arm.

The authoritative voice of one Glynda Goodwith snapped their attention back to the door with another volley of knocks. "Miss. Xiao Long? Miss. Xiao Long are you in there?"

The two girls looked at each other before Yang spoke. "Y-yes?"

"Miss. Xiao Long, open the door, please. I'd like to have a word with you."

"Miss. Goodwitch, is that you?"

"Yes. Imitating an academy official would be against the rules. Now please open the door. Now." Goodwitch said in a quick recitation.

Yang looked back to Blake, her eyes back to their normal size, the confusion more on their minds then the fear. In the back of her mind the presence she felt was still there pulling at her. "Is. Is there anyone with you?"

There was a mumbling between Glynda and a second person behind the door that ended when a new voice spoke to them; a steady gruff tone. "Open the door Miss. Xiao Long. Or are manners something you are still getting the _Yang_ of as well."

Yang stood dumbfounded, her mind racing for a retort. She could feel Blake pulling on her with very step, the strange urge to beat this challenger. She turned the knob and swung open the door and blurted the first thing to come to mind. "F-fuck yo…" her words trailed off as she met with Glynda and her mystery guest. It wasn't his appearance that shocked her, he looked familiar even, but his aura was something almost alien to sense. It didn't wisp out into the air like other auras. From cracks scattered across his skin, deep blues seeped in long tendrils into nothing in the air from the collar and cuffs of his tailcoat. The aura leaking from him surged after she spoke, his face a cracked mask of still indifference.

"Dismal." He said.

Blake's fingers digging into Yang's arm snapped her from gawking at the man, the pain enough to make her wince.

"Miss. Belladonna. Miss. Belladonna, stop that at once." Miss. Goodwitch demanded stepping from beside the man to be in front of Blake. "Miss. Belladonna, look at me when I'm talking to you." Her words were iron, but what caught their attention was the riding crop she pulled from her back. "Don't make me have to separate you two."

Blake's bow twitched; her eyes set to glaring at the teacher. "Yes ma'am." She said, letting go of Yang to stand at attention. Yang was slow to comply looking between Glynda and the man, but after Miss. Goodwitch made a show of clearing her throat, she fell in order.

"Good." The teacher said. "Now, Miss. Xiao Long, I would like you to come with me. The headmaster would like to have a word with you. We will discuss your misconducts later."

**PD**

The white fur collar of Penny's overcoat bristled against her neck as she watched the next volley of fireworks shoot into the night sky. She didn't like the thick garment, but if it meant being able to get away from her personal guard so easily, she couldn't complain. Earlier, she had just run ahead to look at a booth of Vacuo masks when they lost her, group of white overcoats making it to the stall the same time as her. When the group wearing overcoats left, her guards went with them leaving her to run back down the street too try and find them. She didn't look too hard. Now, she could explore as much of the crowd as she wanted.

She hoped to find one of the friends she made durring her time in Vale. Mr. Dog, who she met by the park. Miss. Anchor, who she met by the bay. Ruby Rose, who she met again recently by the dumpsters. Who she didn't expect to see was Mr. Dante the janitor. A familiar glitch in her aura scanners told her she was close, the reader registering an impossibly high and low aura signature at the same time. At the center of that haze of static she found him, dressed in a blue shirt and black leather pants and brown boots covered in straps. He was standing, legs bent, in front of a Mistral booth, its backwall covered in balloons with stuffed grim plushies lining the sides. Darts flew from his hand, a resounding pop with each dart thrown. On a stand beside the booth's owner, a vibrant red tunic embroidered with the sigil of Mistral on its back. Happy to have fond a friend, she went to go say hello.

"Salutations!" Penny greeted, waiving her hand. "And an amity to all, Mr. Dante. I am so happy to see that you are back from your training!"

Dante flinched, his last dart just barely grazing the balloon to the side, a dull thump and a released sigh from the booth owner. He, his eyes lingering on the tunic before looking to her. "Heyyy, Penny. Nice to see they let you out on the holidays. What are you up to?"

"Why… Yes. They do." A light hiccup escaped her lips. "I have been looking for friends all evening to watch the arrival with. Did your friend Lucia accompany you on your return?" Hearing that there were other synthetic people made her core flutter with excitement. She smiled, hoping to make a new friend.

"Sorry kid, no luck this time. She's a busy woman, taking care of her grandma and all."

"Oh, that is alright then. Are you sure Via de Marli is correct? I have not been able to find an island of that name."

"Right, I told you that." He said under his breath. "Uh, try Dumary island. I did say it was a secret island though, so you still might not find it. Speaking of secrets, you been keeping ours?"

Penny nodded, holding a finger to her lips. Thinking back, she still thought it was strange for a janitorial staff have such high clearance unsupervised, but she understood. When she spilled General Ironwoods coffee, she felt very bad, too. "I go into the communications room very often so it was no problem. Did your coworkers find the right document in time?"

"Sure did. The general didn't even notice the difference. Thanks again."

"You're welcome. Have you found your brother yet?"

He grimaced, his eyes shifting towards the crowd. "That's a. Well, nothing a kid should worry about."

Penny took a step closer to her friend holding out her hand. "Do not fear, Mr. Dante, I am your friend and helping each other is what friends are for." His chuckle confused her. She did not tell a joke nor try to be funny, but she was happy to see her friend smile all the same.

"You know," he said, turning back to the booth keeper. "Why not. I'm no good at these kinds of things anyway. I'll even give you this." He pointed to the stuffed Nevermore plushy, its whole body a circle from its stuffing. He looked at the red tunic one last time before turning to Penny, the plush under one arm.

"Fantastic!" She offered her hand again. With some hesitation he took it, chuckling and shaking his head. She led him through the street, cutting in between crowds and lines and even one street performance, until they reached one of the benches nearby. The bench was at the corner the road, a garbage cans set up beside it. When they took a seat, Penny folded her hands in her lap. "So, please tell me what is bothering you."

"You're all sorts of straight forward, aren't you?" Dante said slouching forward. "Trying to rip my arm off back there?"

"Despite your weak aura, you are very strong. I am certain your arms would have stayed on." Despite her reader's glitch, she could still sense his aura in all the static. At half strength of a normal aura, Dante was one of the weakest aura signatures she had ever registered.

"Oh yeah, were you also certain this spot would give a good view of that thing?" Following along the road in front of them was a clear view of lower Vale to the docks, at its edge, giant floating crystals filled with white light fastened into the base of Amity coliseum itself. Towering more then ten stories high, the megastructure shined in the night sky, lights streaming out from large glass walls that wrapped around its midsection. From the top of the open-air arena, four search lights streaked across the clouds above, the symbols of the kingdoms held in each one.

Penny made an effort to try and hide her smile, pressing her lips into a small line with turned up curves. "Why, what a coincidence." She hiccupped, covering her mouth with her hands. "Now, what has been bothering you, friend?"

"Well," he leaned back, taking in the view, the nevermore in his lap. "This whole visit was kind of a mistake. Never meant to show up in Vale or spend this long in one place, but we got separated. Last I saw him, he was in bad shape."

Penny straitened in her seat as she looked back to him. "I am so sorry to hear that. I couldn't imagine being separated from a friend like that, let alone a sibling. How were you two separated?"

A small alarm when off in Penny's head when she watched Dante's distant gaze darken, an echo of old scorn washed over his face. Her combat software wanted to register him as a threat, her aura reader picking up so much static she had to deactivate it to stop it from being overwhelming. She winced, weather from his gaze or the feedback from her system, she couldn't tell, but he noticed. His eyes glanced from her before he turned his head away, an exhausted look in his eye. "Sorry. Story of our lives, that one, and it's usually a pretty rough goodbye. This time he ran after loosing a fight. The guy was always too damn proud for his own good. Would make him do some pretty stupid stuff to boot. Some pretty damn stupid stuff."

"I…" Penny knew what anger was. In her files, psychological profiles of all the emotions held many details of the physical and psychological characteristics for them. She had seen plenty of Atlas troops frustrated in training, had seen General Ironwood and her father angry with each other, but she had never seen so much raw emotion weighed against family. In a split second she went through all of her files of her father.

Thousands of happy hours cataloged together, so many memories of her and her and her father that Penny started to feel homesick. The idea of not sharing those memories with one called family filled her core with led. She felt her face growing warm, her eyes straining against a pressure building up from nowhere. "I don't- uif?" The nevermore plushie squished into her face, she felt everything disappear around one second and reappear the next. In that split second, her navigations system disconnected from the network. When it returned, she felt herself being held in someone's arms, catching her before she could stumble over. The nevermore fell into her hands as around her, the sounds of cheering and applause mixed with the rushing winds. Dante patted her back and walked forward, let go of her. He leaned against the handrailing in front of them, polished steal against a nighttime sky, the lights of Vale stretching far and wide below them all the way up to Beacon academy.

She joined him at the railing, the nevermore tight in her arms, a relaxed grin marked across his face, his cool blue eyes watching her. "Don't worry about me, ok? Look." Leaning over to her, he waived his hand towards the city bellow. "Don't wanna to miss this kind of view because of a few tears, do you?"

Over the railing, Penny saw the streets bellow them alive with the colors of the four kingdoms. From here she could see all of the festival at once. Streams of orange, green, white and blue flowed between rows of tents held in a grid of light. In a larger cross-section of road, Atlas was still holding its large demo for new military hardware. Scattered all around, she spotted uniforms from the four academies mingling with each other. From on high, she saw all of Remnant; its people come together and thought how wonderful. She smiled; her gaze fixed on the city below. "How did we get up here?"

"My, what do you call it? Quark? Epithet? Semblance?" Dante said, looking back to the view.

"Your semblance is teleportation? That was quite a long distance for someone with so little aura, you didn't need to do that for me, Mr. Dante."

"Don't sweat it. You can keep the bird, too. I've had my fill of feather face."

"But." Penny squeezed nevermore in her arms, the black plushie sinking into the white furs f her coat. "I didn't help you with your decision yet. I would still like to try if that is alright with you?"

"You did, in a way. Can't say I'm ok with seeing this place fall apart now. But…"

The tone in her friend's voice caught her attention. She knew environment management on a large scale was important, but to take so much thought. She decided the files in her databank made things seem to simple. She would need to ask her father to update his definitions when she returned home. "Don't worry, Mr. Dante. I am sanitation ready!"

He chuckled. "Kids. Well, to make things simple; Some people want me to help them, but helping them could make a real mess of things. They say it's nessassary, but I don't know."

"Hmmm. Is this a mess that is too large for you to manage?"

"No. I've dealt with some real stinkers in my time, but those were 'different' messes. The messes here take a more delicate touch."

"I see. Do you still want to help them, even knowing this?"

He leaned both of his elbows onto the railing, teetering over the edge. "Think so. Just doesn't seem good treating people like that, no different."

It didn't take long for an answer to come to Penny's mind. An answer so simple she almost felt embarrassed to say. "Hmmm. If the mess is not a problem and the people are worth it, why not work to clean the mess where you can and mitigate where you cannot?"

"Even if it hurts more people then it helps?" he said.

"Huh?" She looked over to him, the warm glow of the lights below coloring the rails around them, the harsher lights from the coliseum behind them lighting casting long shadows over his face.

"What if, I don't know, the best case scenario of me mitigating still made a pretty big mess? What if some people got hurt no matter what? What if the people I was helping were hurting for a long time already?" He looked over to Penny and they held each other's gaze in silence, the seconds blowing by between them. Then she smiled.

"Simple again. Just do everything you can until no one is hurt."

"Huh?" he said.

"Your weak aura and teleportation semblance make it clear that you tend to do things alone, Dante, and problem like this would be impossible under these conditions. Even if you were stronger you may not have managed alone, but do not fear, friend. For I am here to help you!" She turned away from the railing, taking a step towards him. "And if we are not enough, we can make more friends to help. I'm sure if we all work hard together; we can manage anything- uif?"

Dante's hand ruffled Penny's hair and for the first time she heard him laugh. More then just his usual chuckle, he laughed loud and long, voice lashing through the air. Her face grew warm like at the booth, but now with a warmth she didn't like. She tried to stop him, catching his wrist with her hand, but couldn't pull him away. "Stop it, Dante. Why are you being so mean to your friend?"

He pulled his hand away and kneeled down in front of her, his smile caught in the warm light of the city. "Ha ha ha haa. Cuz you got it, kid. The whole jackpot. Man, I've been spending too much time with my brother. Always overthinking. Always gotta concentrate. Thought I was done being all mopey out of my twenties."

Penny felt her core fluster looking down on her friend's face. She raised the nevermore up to her chin and pressed her face into it. "Uh. Thank you." She said, her voice muffled by the plushie.

He grabbed the railing, pulling himself up. "No problem kid. Say, you wouldn't happen to know about a group called Carcosa, would you?"

A quick skim of her databank later and Penny lifted her head from the plushie. "Mmm. No data found. Why?"

"Eh, they're just my employer's employer. Nothing big. So, this a good view of the festival for you? We could go pretty much anywhere in the city if you want." He turned to look to the glass wall behind them. "Better decide soon."

"It has been a wonderful night, but I should probably return to base soon." She followed his gaze to the coliseum. "Oh. I will be participating in the first- and second-year bracket of the tournament. I would love it if you could come and watch." She pulled a large ticket from her jacket and held it out to him.

"Hey, thanks. I'm guessing you want my scroll number, too?" He said, pulling the device out.

She tucked her chin into the never more again. "Oh, no. I already added myself to your contacts."

"You what? How?"

"Advanced cybernetics." She smiled. "I did want to ask something, though."

"Ok, shoot."

"What does damn mean?"

Dante rubbed the back of his head, turning away from the girl. "Well well. If you want to learn about that, ask your pop. In the meantime, it looks like you got company. See yah, friend." He pointed to the door at the far side of the glass wall. She turned to just in time to see three Atlas officers come out, dressed in the clean grey and whites' uniforms. "Miss. Polendina, everyone has been looking for you. General Ironwood is in quite a scare. Were you alone here the whole time?"

"I'm not alone, I'm-." When she turned back, a faint wisp of red faded in the wind. She squeezed the nevermore in her arms to make sure it was real, her aura scanner, turning back on, telling her what she already knew. "Oh. Yes. I was alone." She hickuped.

Penny had a lot on her mind being escorted back to the base. She had wondered why her janitor friend needed such an advanced scroll for work, it took her much longer to break the security lock on it then she was expecting, or why her scanner only malfunctioned around him. But, above all else, she wondered why an alarm was going off in the Atlas side of her coding. She could tell it was something new in the update she had to get before coming to Vale. Her father told her Ironwood would only be adding maps and clearance keys to let her move through the base easily. This was more of a signal then an access code and it didn't let Penny see any of its script ether. The only thing she could access was the alarm's name; the yellow sign. She did not like having something inside of her she couldn't understand. She would make Ironwood answer for installing a program without her permission.

**C**

"That is why only I can bring him to you, ma'am. Having your forces search for something they can't even see would be pointless." Cinder pleaded, knelt on the roof's floor, head down; her scroll enveloped in a podium of glass in front of her. "Please, give me another chance and I am sure I can convince him to join our cause. Your faith in me will not be in vain."

The black mirror showed nothing back to her, four blank icons and her own reflection the only indicator the device was even on. A voice spoke a mocking tone through the speaker, pitching high with glee. "My, my. Does the princess think her status can carry her so far? How many mistakes has it been, Ma'am? First the maiden, then the white fang compromise. Now this? I say we-."

"Silence, poisoner." Another voice, this one rough and low, growled. "Any fool would realize what value this information has to our search. Not to mention her efforts have gained us influence within the White Fang ranks with little conflict. Or would you like to start explaining your own collateral in the last mission?"

"The information she has brought does little to improve the fact that she no longer has the subject, nor any way of reliably predicting its next movements without taking any more away from what resources she has left. We must already relocate funds to her cause, why not send someone down who can use them with a little more foresight? Ha, ha." A new voice, articulate and embellished, took a long draw of air between laughs.

Cinder raised her head, eyes bright with indignation. "You would not have to relocate resources if you had given me the supplies I requested! Is the progress of this mission such a joke to you? I am trying to topple one of our greatest opponents, and yet you still see fit to play petty with your support! I still need the-."

"Enough." A cool voice spoke, the screen flicking to life. The screen held in its frame, a woman in a black dress wearing a red hooded shawl, white hair draped over her chest that stopped along with her shawl at her hips. She stood by a tall window holding a purple sky, her hand, grey with faint streaks of purple underneath her skin, rested against the frame. The woman turned, her strides sending echoes trailing after one another in silence until she was seated at the table, the scroll only view of her now her hands as she poured herself a cup of tea. After a long sip of her cup and setting it down, did she speak again.

"My engineer, see to it that our princess has her all of her needs met by our next meeting or else you will share in the consequences of her failure, do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am." Cinder and the engineer said.

"Now, your past performances have presented challenges that have required more engagement then I would like, my dear. Do not present me with another half-done job to chase after something you cannot manage alone. The maiden must come first, if perusing this man creates any more distraction you will answer for it, do you understand?"

Cinder bowed her head down, biting her lip. The magnitudes of difference in power between her and the Red Stampede was too great to ignore. She lifted her head, what determination in her fizzled out as soon as she looked up to see black and red eyes bearing down on her. The woman's pale face held no joy, no malice, no contempt, but simply waited for her to respond, and that terrified Cinder. "Ma'am. Uh, I…"

A cold weight slithered from her left hand, up her sleeve, and onto the back of her neck where the strip of shadow curved onto the left side of her face. The pale woman reached her right hand past the screen, purple veins deepening in color all around her skin. A warmth bloomed on the left side of Cinder's face, what felt like a hand gently cupping her cheek. "My little princess, whatever are you wearing? Stand up. Let me see you."

She said nothing, quick to obey. With wide eyes staring at the woman, Cinder willed herself up, one shaky leg after another, until she stood up straight.

The woman gave a polite chuckle, a simple smile brightening her face as she used her other hand to pull down her hood. "Why, you look awful, my dear. Let me guess; not sleeping again? And you were such a proper lady when my hearth brought you in." The shadow twisted and curved against her cheek, the woman caressing her face, caught up in a memory. "So sweat, proper and polite." The shadow receded, then coiled around her throat and extended onto her chin, the woman's finger and thumb pinching down on her. "Maybe my poisoner is right. Maybe I have been spoiling you." What warmth Cinder found in that simple smile turned against her when the woman's eyes narrowed into a glare playful glare.

Cinder stayed quiet, not daring to object, not daring to agree.

The pale woman eased her eyes, seemingly satisfied. "Now, do you understand what you are going to be focusing on?"

"Yes ma'am." Cinder said. The woman lowered her screen, her hands returning to normal and the cup of tea the only things in frame. At the same time, the shadow wreathed around Cinder's neck, a prickling moving along the length of the shadow as a white bone mask floated to the surface. Three pairs scarlet eyes looked up to Cinder, mandibles emerging from the void underneath its mask. Then, it submerged itself back into its shadow, slithering back under her uniform.

"Good. Now, if I may continue, my hearth will be coming to Vale to persue thin man. With Haven secured, I want you to divert what resources you have not dedicated to maintaining our hold to securing the asset, do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am." The low voice said.

"Excellent. You all work so hard for me. For our cause. Now, is there is nothing left of this impromptu meeting, let this be the end." Her hand picked up the cup, taking it out of view. "May Remnant remain." She said.

"Her land for her people." They all responded. With that, the screen blinked returning to dark, one of the lines dropping from the call. Cinder stood, dusting the dirt from her knees. Her head low.

The poisoner cackled; voice filled with glee. "Hahaha. To see her grace is always a treasure, but the entertainment of your floundering. You must keep doing these little surprise meetings, little princess, what a treat!" Then the poisoner left.

"I will," the engineer paused. "_Review_, your request. Expect to hear from me shortly. I will have details on the package as well." With that, the engineer left.

Now it was only herself and the hearth. Cinder picked up her scroll, the podium shattering in an eruption of glass. She stood there, every second her heart weighing heavier and heavier. "Nothing to say?" she said.

A heavy sigh came from her scroll. "What's left to say. This all could have been better done. Calling for two emergency meetings? Suggesting a whole shift in operations over something you can't prove? What were you thinking?"

"You weren't there. You wouldn't be able to see it." Her scroll shook in her hand, fingers threatening to crack the device. "It is like nothing I have ever seen. Power. So much power."

"You're starting to sound like the poisoner, princess. I hope you can collect yourself before my arrival. It will be good to see you again."

Cinder scoffed, her mentor's reassuring tone giving back some sense of calm. "And I hope you don't slow down my work, old man. You've never been the most graceful following another person's plans."

He chuckled. "None but hers, little princess. None but hers. Be ready for me in a week. Till then." He signed off.

Cinder walked over to the edge of the roof, the silhouette of Amity coliseum drifting through the shattered moon's light. She gazed at it, its crystals soft light failing to outshine. "A week. That is more then enough time."

**Hello today! **

**Sorry for the delay and I am now also a liar. This ended up being much longer then I expected. I have many feelings about that. But before any of that I would like to thank you for making it to the end of this chapter! I have been reading the comments you all have been leaving and I am grateful to those who understand that I'm trying to do my best. Being new, I've enjoyed writing, but I cant help feel that I'm struggling to make meaningful progress in improving my writing style. I know I've become sloppier with my punctuation and my pacing still feels off to my. I feel like this chapter is a very slow read. And no fights either. Sorry about that. Couldn't find a place to put one that felt natural.**

**Let's talk about the some of the parts.**

**Yang and Ruby: I new I wanted Yang to have a more prominent in the story, but I didn't anticipate it to become so complex. The way I plotted this, there was supposed to be a more media focused bit with her public image, but I dropped that for this instead. I really want Ruby to have a more active role in the next one, so look forward to that I hope. **

**Dante: In reflection, I'm not too sure of how I portrayed Dante in this and I think that will be a point of contention for some. I think it really comes down to interpreting how moral he is and how he acts. Justice is kind of a thing for him with his father and all that, but he also did seem pretty ok with Fortuna being in ruined. He's also pretty ok with having Vergil around still after two cities were destroyed because of him. Maye 3?**

**Penny and Cinder: Cinder. Guess how many times I had to completely redo that scene! Guess how long that scene took to write! I won't be surprised if her conversation with Dante rubs people the wrong way. It'll take a better writer to do that scene more justice and I'm not at that level yet. But I really feel like there's something there that can get him to agree to work with them that doesn't play it off for convenience. Idk. I did my best. I almost had them fight even, but I don't think he'd toy with a human like that.**

**Penny on the other hand, well. Kinda the same feeling, but it was getting close to Christmas and I didn't rewrite it a tone, so maybe. I've always liked Penny as a character. I haven't seen season 7, but from what I've heard she's back! Yay? I heard it had something to do with her core, that actually helped do some of the characterization stuff, so it'll be interesting to see how they did that. **

**Blake and Weiss: Saw a video that explored the idea of Blake struggling with guilt and shame related to the white fang and her involvment. I cant find them now, but I really liked the idea. That history of bad decisions kind of compounded on her with Yang in my mind. Hopefully that came through in the writing.**

**Now, Weiss. Big fan of her. WhiteRose was my ship. I want her in on this. I did learn how to spell her name. **

**Hey hey! If you made it this far reading then, congratulations! You get a pat on the back and prepare yourself for some good and bad news.**

**Lets start with bad. Writing this too a long time and things are going to get a little strained for me, so I don't know when the next one will come out. I wont make any promises I cant keep and I want to write to a quality that I feel comfortable publishing in. maybe I need to reevaluate my style. Too wordy? Too much tell? I experimented with this one, you notice? So there's that.**

**Good news that might kind of be bad. I'd like to try smaller one off stories of Dante and Vergil in Remnant. It would take time away from writing this but it would also be out quicker. Fanfics of fanfics. Not sure how I feel about that now that I think about it, but yeah. If you have some ideas you'd want to see me do, I'll be looking out for them in the comments. Just a fun and actiony secret mission/ RWBY CHIBI kind of thing. I'll try some of that.**

**So yeah. If you made it this far. Wow. Thank you so much for listening to me ramble. SSS for reading.**


	5. Secret Mission One

**Secret Mission One: DvsC**

**Hello today!**

**So, this sort of broke the mold I was trying to make it into with how much went into it. Not in size so much as time. This was another way I thought of taking the end of Cinder and Dante's meeting that was cut for time. Ideas were there when I was writing the first few drafts but I wasn't happy with how it came out at the time of release. I wanted to make this work back into the story so that if you wanted to you could think this as an alternative to how Cinder and Dante meet.**

Cinder pushed the tan folder to the middle of the table and pulled it open. Inside, papers and documents clipped together came to light; all the documents on their efforts in Vale. "It may seem like 'just business' from here, Dante, but Carcosa is working to stand in the way of those who want the world for themselves." As he leaned forward, she shut the folder, keeping her hand on top. She held his gaze, standing out of her seat, her smile now back to a steady line. "Someone with your skills and abilities could be of great help to us. This opportunity is offered to few, but those who accept can do great things all over the world. Continue to work with me and you'll have more than one node to further your search and what resources we can spare." She gestured towards the card in his hand. "Work with Carcosa, and you could have the four kingdoms under your eye."

Cinder stood, waiting for a response from him. She watched him flipping the card between his fingers, the intrigue in his eyes cooled into a steady glare. Something was wrong.

Dante stood up turning his back to the table and hunched over to look out the window, his eyes scanning the sky over rooftops for the lightshow above. Behind him, all around the room tables and chairs toppled over as guns were raised at the man who would usually wear red. Cinder's power surged through her, ready to release at the slightest sign of threat. Instead, through her glowing eyes, she saw him tuck the card away into his pocket, his grin thinning into a grimace on Dante's face. "That's a pretty good deal. I'm sure that's the kind of deal that got these people to line up all nice and neat for you, too."

Cinder glanced to the forces around her. With these odds, with him unarmed and his back turned, maybe. But for now, they could have him still. "Mutual benefit is a wonderful thing. Wouldn't it be easier to find your brother if you had a little help? You said he was in dire condition last you saw him, Doesn't sooner rather than later sound good?"

"My brother," he scratched the back of his head shifting his gaze up to the sky. "Would be nice to figure all of that out, but what you got going here..."

"Excuse me?" She narrowed her eyes back at him.

"Oh, come on. Secret bases, big promises, shady organizations. This whole operation has 'scape goat' writen all over. I'm guessing that's by design?" He waived a hand to the White Fang behind her to emphasize.

"I can assure you, Dante." She said, straining to keep the frustration from her voice. "Failure for the White Fang would mean too much for my operations here. We cannot afford to do any less then succeed."

"I'm sure you can't." He moved towards the table shaking his head. "All I'm saying is there's gonna be allot more to lose for the White Fang when things fall apart then some business deal and I'm not gonna be a part of that. I'm out. I'll take what intel you got for me as payment and be on my way. Thanks for the shower and wash, I guess."

Before he could reach down to pick up the folders, Cinder stepped in front of him, a hand on top of the folders. Her mind darted for a solution. Appealing to the cause of the White Fang had failed. Offering resources to find his brother had failed. Intimidating him ended pitifully, and her last option fared no better. If she dared, she would need to finish him quickly. She offered her hand to shake between them, a squirming underneath her sleeve.

"That is unfortunate, I was hoping to-." A black jet of tendrils flew from her wrist towards the man's face, but before they could land on their mark, he turned his head, grabbed her wrist, and to her surprise, had shoved the barrel of a large pistol to the side of her head.

"Hey now, you sure about doing this?" he said, pulling her arm to the side, black tendrils flailing away from them.

Cinder found speaking difficult, her frustration catching in her throat as she tried to match his gaze with her head pressed to the side. "You underestimate what I am willing to do to succeed."

He grinned. "So, you've got some guts after all? Good. I like a lady with some guts. I guess its about time we see how that honor holds up."

"My honor..." The tendrils returned to their place in Cinder's sleeve as soon as he let go and she took a step back, the folder under her arm. "Very well, but one request."

**Cinder vs Dante**

The back alley behind the café became a black gash in the landscape pale with the light of the falling moon, the flash of color from the occasional firework painting the three story building that the café found home in with reds, blues and greens one after the other. The wide back alley had been her favorite part of this node in particular, wide enough to fit a van and with an empty lot in the middle. The kind of space for bulkier operations. In this case, a battle.

Cinder stepped out of the door, her black jacket around one arm and tan folder holding everything for Dante in the other. She passed her jacket and the folder to Emerald who was following close behind, a modest sized bag in her arms as they made their way to the lot. "Have the remaining guard watching the entrances to the alleyway. I don't want any distractions, understand?"

"Yes ma'am." Emerald slid the folder to the side of the folded clothing in the bag and struggled to fold the jacket as they walked.

"Good. I want you on the roof doing the same. Your semblance, violence, excuses. Whatever it takes to keep people away. Now, my glass. Quickly." She stopped, bending over to remove one of the Haven academy uniform shoes and socks.

"Yes," Emerald placed two dark glass high heeled shoes in front of the woman. "But, ma'am. I was wondering why go through any of this at all?"

"Honor is an old-fashioned idea, but if it can get the man on our side it is nessassary to play along." Cinder said without hesitation, her mind focused on keeping balance on one heel while removing another shoe.

"No, I mean him. He may be quick and skilled, but so was Adam, and even then, we had the white Fang's trust after that. Ma'am." She added quickly, pulling out a red dress from the bag.

Cinder furrowed her brow, taking the dress from Emerald's hand and opening it from the top. "Adam was little more than an inconvenience to me." She said, stepping into her dress and pulling it over her shirt. "This man… may be more of a challenge." One sleeve at a time she managed to change, handing the shirt over, then undid the pants to the uniform and stepped out of them. "But for what it will mean if I can bring him to the organization, it will be worth it."

"But he seems so-."

"Enough, Emerald." Picking up her pants from the floor, she straightened her dress around the black shorts she wore underneath before moving on to the lot, her glass heels sending a light plink as she walked. She tossed the pants back to Emerald, the girl catching them in her arms after a quick step. "The roofs. We have used enough time as is."

She heard Emerald go more then see it, a rushing of wind from behind her told her she was alone these final steps. She was glad for any time to plan for what would come next. Slowing her pace to a saunter, Cinder tried to make any kind of profile she could work with to fight the man. A notable habit? A preference to close or long range? Maybe a limit to one of his abilities? To her dismay all they had on the Red Stampede showed that he lived up to the title he was given. An unstoppable force.

"Hey, there you are!" His voice pulled her back into the moment, arriving to the lot. The space was a flat square of concrete in the middle of three building; two storage facilities on its side and a third half demolished that made the lots front. Whatever condemned the building only left scraps of the second floor and the front room of the first, everything after that was a mess of splintered wood and concrete before Cinder had it cleared for their operations. Standing on the shadows of what remained of the second floor, Dante grinned down at her, hands on his hips. "And here I thought you were getting cold feet. You sure you can fight all dressed up?"

She stepped into the lot, glass heels plinking against the scattered gravel over the concrete. Cold air filled her chest sending a chill down her arms. She refused the coiling knot in her stomach, straightening herself, a slim smile adorning an allure gaze. "I wouldn't dream of spoiling a fight like this in an outfit like that. Honestly, I've been looking forward to a fair rematch. Hiding your aura from being sensed is quite a trick."

Dante jumped down from the edge of the ceiling, landing across the lot from her. "Oh yeah? Well, I'm glad I didn't scare you off. But don't worry, I've got a little bit of a game to give you a fighting chance this time, if you'll take it."

"I don't frighten so easily." With a step forward, an amber glow filled the dust infused trimmings of Cinder's dress, the next step turning into a whirl. Around her, gravel and dust joined in her dance trailing her hands in streams of amber heat until they formed into molten blades, cooling with a hiss as she grabbed them from the air at the end of her turn, standing at the ready. "And I don't need some game as a handicap. I'll fight you at full strength if it means proving my honor."

He rubbed the back of his head and looked away. "Ha ha ha. Well, you're half right. Call it a bet then. Land a single hit on me, and I'll cooperate. No questions asked. And if you don't, I take the info you got me for my last jobs. How about it?"

Cinder couldn't tell whether to take the offer as an insult or not, instead narrowing her glare and lowering her stance for a lunge.

"Well, I'll take that as a yes. Alright." Dante reached back and a metal pipe as long as he was tall appeared in his hand seemingly out of nowhere.

Cinder recognized the trick from earlier with the pistoles that were nowhere to be found on his person at the moment. She drew more power from her maiden aura, eyes ablaze, when she saw the pipe take up a faint red glow in his hands.

"Now, are you ready?"

Before her next breath a haze of red plumed in front of her and from it the led pipe came down against the concrete, shards of rock and rubble pelting against Cinder's aura. She jumped back, raising her blades overhead in time to block a second downward swing from Dante. With every step she took he was on her, pipe clashing against her blades, more toying with her defenses than going in for a strike. She found the opportunity to attack when a forward stab allowed her to scrape along the pipe's length for a counter attack. Sliding into a deep lunge, she swiped her blades up against the man's chest only to miss by a hair as he leaned back.

An eager breath filled her chest, she pressed the break in his attack, taking a step forward and setting her blades to work. The glass barrage scorched through the air locking Dante in her new rhythm, the man dodging and weaving in and out of her reach to the tempo. Between the lights of her burning blades a boyish grin stared her down no matter how close she managed get.

"Come on. If this is the best you've got what makes you think you can pull this whole stunt off, huh?" He swerved back, a double edged swipe eating the air where he stood. Cinder could just make out a blur before the pipe came down on her, but she felt her glass blades shattered against the metal and concrete. Surprise snared her attention, the shimmering shards of her weapon scattering around her and at the center of the pieces the same led pipe, this time sheathed in a darker crimson aura then before.

The jab landed square in her gut uncorked the knot in her throat and sent her tumbling across the lot, her aura crumpling against the sudden impact of the tip of the led pipe. Pain gripped her stomach as she staggered up from the floor, a throbbing filling her ears with every moment her lungs fought against her. She'd expected his strength to be a threat, maybe even for Hazel, but this? She wasn't even entirely sure what had happened, her aura infused with the maiden power should have been enough to stop most anything. But somehow his one hit was enough to rend her shield so thin that the blow hit with little resistance.

"I… am just… getting started." Cinder croaked, air trickling back into her lungs. Making it to one knee, the glow from her eyes waivered before an amber glow enveloped her, her aura restoring.

"I don't know about that. Looks like you're coming out more bark than bite to me." Putting the pipe on the floor, Dante crouched down clapping his hands together. "But, I'm still not sure so let's keep this going. Come on girl. Come on!"

"E-enough…" Cinder sucked in air through grit teeth, what aura she had left swelling to the surface, her amber glow burning scraps of wood and gravel around her. From their ashes four smoldering javelins formed in the air, all pointed towards him.

"You son of a-" She twisted her body around, arms outstretched, a pillar of flame engulfing her. She stretched her arms forward sending the cyclone of flames spiraling forward, red hot javelins darting towards their target, but it wasn't enough.

"_Bitch_!" The strain on her aura told her to stop, the tingling pain in her stomach still a bright reminder of what another mistake would bring. But her anger refused.

"Rrrraaaaa!" From her palms jets of flame streaked across the yard adding to the assault, fueling the inferno that engulfed the man. The fire that swarmed him climbed higher until they towered over the ruins of the building that was their cover, yellow light filling the dark alley with heat enough to warp the concrete around her mark and send anything small that could burn to ash.

"Ha, haha!" She watched the flames spiral into the air, the heat greater then anything she managed before. Weather it was her rage or desperation, she found enough strenght to finally catch him. _Land a single hit? I do hope this will suffice, Dante. No. We must focus. Victory with grace, as she would. There will be time to-._

"Not bad!"

The roaring pillar burst in a gust of frigid wind, shards of ice scattering across the floor freezing the burnt slate where they fell, the gust nocking Cinder back and ending her flames. Where the ground was once a black patch of molten concrete, frost plastered over the slag, frost burnt stone hissing in brittle tones crunched as Dante stepped from the center of it all, a metal ring with three chained bars swaying in his hand. "Might even call it a warm breeze, but I like to keep it cool."

"Of course." Cinder said under her breath, pushing herself off of the ground. "Why would it be that easy." Two more blades forming into her grasp.

She charged him, four flaming bolts launching themselves at Dante. Each one extinguishing against the frosted edges of his nunchakus, the metal twirling from hand to hand in a blinding twist of speed. She hacked and slashed, every hit brushed off by a stroke of ice. What infuriated her more then the exhaustion or her worthless attacks was the addition of hoops and yells that accompanied any of Dante's movements.

"Getting sloppy already? And here I wanted to kick it up a notch." Ducking underneath one of her swipes, he launched her back with a quick kick to the chest, picking up the led pipe as he rose. She charged at him again, led ready to meet her in place of the nunchakus.

"I guess I've been-." But, instead of meeting glass with led, the scorched metal, frosted over with ice crystals along its side and its form caved in from the super heating, shattered as it lit up with a red aura, slag crumbling to the floor.

"Well-." Dante said, throwing himself back.

"Ha!"

Before he could speak, Cinder unleashed another volley of flaming spikes keeping him off balance. The spikes buried themselves in front of him, Cinder already on top of them. Flames burst from beneath her feet, and with one last burst of her strength she launched herself using the spikes as a spring board, her blades crossed in front of her.

"I have you!" Her heart skipped a beat, the look of surprise on his face reason enough to push her already straining aura; the flames sending her to greater speeds. Caught off balance with his feet still in the air, she was already too close to Dante to stop herself even if she wanted too.

She was only inches away when it hit. Something longer then her body slammed into her back sending her crashing to the floor, her speed sending her skittering against gravel and concrete until she met with a pile of rubble along the alley wall.

If the pain from before was bright, this was blinding. Any movement drugged up a chorus of agony, her muscles straining to tear themselves free from the torment. Her hands groped through wood chips and scrapped iron for anything solid, finding the brick wall to lean against, staggering onto her feet. What little remained of her power was shatering around her, shreds of her aura rippling to nothing across her body. "Th-that's… not… ah."

She brought a hand to her face, warm red clinging to her skin spilling over her left eye, an aura barely left to smolder. In her right eye she could see a huge sword being leveled at her. Holding the blade in one hand, Dante stood in the center of the scorched lot, the moon shrouding his face in shadow as it loomed over them, his blade catching the light. Dark stone running down its middle into a talon like cross guard with a bright red jewel fixed at the end of the hilt, the blade's most defining feature was the aura it shared with its user. Alone his presence already felt overwhelming, at its most unruly a fog that singed her senses. The blade held an intensity all its own, power thrumming from within matching its wielder's own.

"H-how!" Cinder pressed her back to the brick wall behind her, its roughed edges and flecks of dirt stinging against her tender back, sweat clinging them to her. "How can you have so much power? I am the Fall Maiden! I have overcome everything this world has thrown at me to attain this power. Even now it should not be-!"

Ice shot through her veins as she saw both sword and swordsman charge her, the point of the blade gliding through the air leaving streaks of red aura in its wake. The act of raising her arm felt slow in the time she had left, the crawling under her skin only beguining to start down her arm.

"Ma'am!" A blur of green and brown toppled Cinder over, Emerald's arms wrapped around her as her body cushioned the fall, mortar and stone crunching behind them as the large blade buried itself into the wall behind them.

Cinder bobbed in the Emerald's arms as she bolted across the lot to the alley, the girl's eyes looking all around them. Before they could make it, a plume of red blocked their path, Dante stepping out, his blade overhead. She shut her eyes, frustration at her reflex stealing what dignity she had left, hoping the final blow to be quick. Instead, she felt Emerald's grip around her tighten before being jerked back. Bursts of noise erupted around them when she opened her eyes again, Dante swiping at the air around them before disappearing in another cloud of red and appearing half way across the lot, crimson blades arching around him.

She watched him carve concrete and slate into charred scraps, his blade leaving scars of molten slag in anything it cut. After another haze he was near them again, his eyes chasing some unseen target with a grin. Cinder watched as Emerald carried her into the ruined building for shelter, his volley of blades launching into the air were the last she saw of him before Emerald set her down. She eased Cinder onto her feet leaning against singed brick. "Ma'am, oh gods you look really hurt!"

Cinder didn't need to look over herself to know that. Most of her body was in enough pain to make standing up straight a challenge, the blood and splinters scattered across her body hadn't even registered. "It's… nothing. You are interfering."

"Nothing? It looked like he was about to kill you. We need to leave before-"

"Leave? I thought we were just getting to the good part, or are you out of gas already?" Dante stepped into the ruined shop, his blade on his back.

Emerald was the first to turn, her scythe blades drawn and aimed at him. "Shut your mouth and keep that _freak_ sword away from Cinder!"

"Emerald, that's enough! Go and do what I've told you." Cinder rolled to her other shoulder on the wall, her face twisting at the pain her back brought until she could face him.

"No!" The girl charged Dante, bearing her blades down against him, his own blade back in his hand in one smooth motion, the green arcs of Emerald's twin hand scythes pressed against his sword held in front of him to block in one hand. "I'm not leaving you with this old creep."

Her blades scraped against his, sparks flying between them, Emerald's strenght doing little to gain an inch in their struggle. He laughed, hoisting his blade and the girl off the ground with one hand. "Easy there, kid. The fight's done. I've seen what I need to see."

She was face to face with him now, her legs dangling inches off of the ground. A heeled boot flew past his head just missing, a knee making no better of an attempt. Emerald swayed from grip to grip, each kick she sent only grazing his mop of white hair. Their brief exchange was brought to an end after Dante heaved the girl off of his blade with one swing sending her flying back to Cinder. Before they could collide, the girl planted her two scythes into the brick, their tips scraping two jagged lines along the wall bringing her to a halt inches from Cinder.

"Why you." Emerald pulled her blades from the wall, but before she could move against Dante again an arm caught her shoulder.

"I said stand down, Emerald! Do you think he could not have killed the both of us if he wanted to?"

Emerald looked from Cinder to the man before holstering her weapons as she turned, offering her help Cinder. "…Yes ma'am."

Dante clapped his hands, the blade extinguishing in flames behind him. "Not bad. Not bad. You're definitely more than some two-bit villain. Can't say you passed with flying colors though, but man that ending."

"Score? Was beating her half to death just a game to you?" Emerald said, leaning on Cinder on her shoulder.

The grin on his face waivered, his clapping stopped. "Well, when you put it that way I sound like a real demon. And apparently, one of the only two devils in this place."

"Devils?" Cinder tried to straighten herself. "This nonsense again?"

"Devils and demons aren't nonsense. A human could get in some pretty serious trouble if they. Well, don't worry about that. But its safe to say your peoples power comes from your weird souls leaking all out of you as far as I can see." He waived his hand at the both of them. "Not a whiff of demonic power from anyone durring this whole fight, unless you're still holding out on me?"

"Our souls? Look who's talking? I can barely feel your aura."

"Emerald, enough." Cinder pulled on the girl's shoulder. "So, this whole duel was to measure my power after all?"

Dante took a few steps closer to them, his eyes gazing upward. "Power is not the only thing that matters. I'm not my brother. Now that guy would have been another story. No, I figure you've got power enough to do whatever you need to, but what I needed to see was heart. You were running a pretty standard bit from what I saw; a tightly run racket with the white fang and all. But, in the fight I saw you. You got sloppy. You got mad. And, you sure didn't take kindly to losing, oh boy." He leaned his back against the gashes in the wall beside them. "But that last little assault you gave to protect your friend at the end, now that was something."

Cinder's eye fell quickly to Emerald, catching the girl's guilty stare for a moment before she looked away. "The things we can accomplish under pressure." She said.

"I'll say. I really had to double time it to keep you off me. I even thought I lost you two at the end if your souls weren't so leaky. Can't tell you how often I see people in you line of work leave their team behind. It's a shame, really. Glad to see you got enough honor to stick your neck out."

"Leaky?" Emerald said.

"So, have you reconsidered joining then?"

Dante pushed off the wall, his back to them. "Well, I've decided not to cut your operations short at the very least. But joining? I'm gonna need a little more time on that." He walked to the edge of the wreckage, turning his head to give them one last look. "I've only just arrived to this world. Meddling in its affairs before getting to know the place would just be bad manners. For now, I'll just Look for my brother on my own, hire a detective maybe. Can't be that hard to make some money in a place like this." With that he jumped, disappeared in a plume of red.

They watched in silence as the haze faded, bursts of light echoing through the ally reminding Cinder of the festival and the little time they had left. A cool breeze found its way into the exposed room sending a chill down her back; her aura too weak to resist even that.

"Emerald, let go of me." She said, feeling the girl tense under her.

"I- uh. Yes ma'am." Emerald said, risking a glance at her before slowly letting her carry herself on uneasy feet. "What should we do now?"

She limped to the edge of the ruined shop; the result of her duel etched into the concrete around her. Warped and frozen, the lot was unrecognizable from its origional integrety, the gashes where Dante had cut into still red. When had he started taking her seriously, she thought? Did he even?

What strength she had left seemed to leave her then, her legs sending her to the ground in a heap.

"Ma'am!" Emerald said, hurrying to the woman.

"No. Leave me and fetch my things, I need my scroll." Cinder grabbed the wall beside her and started pulling herself up.

"Let me help you-" She kneeled down; a hand outstretched.

"No. I _will_ stand on my own." Cinder ignored the hand, planting one glass slipper into the ground and lifting herself to stand over the girl. "Now go!"

Staggering back to her feet, Emerald turned and started across the lot. "I- Sorry ma'am."

Cinder watched her go, but frowned. "Emerald."

"Yes ma'am?" she turned.

"You did… well. We may not have acheved all that we hoped from today, but we did discover a few valuable things about our apparent guest because of you."

She stiffened, poorly contained joy mixed into a surprised nod. "Oh. Uh, yes ma'am. Thank you, ma'am."

"Good, but do not make a habit of disobeying me. Understand? Now hurry."

**Hey again,**

**So, fight scene. Hope you liked it. I almost used this as an end to Cinder and Dante's encounter in the previous chapter, but I cut it because I could never get it to where I wanted it to be. I focused on trying to make the scenes clear with what was going on as well as have a good pace to it. Although the action came out ok, in the end I think it ran a little too long for my liking. So many people were confused by the two aura idea that I felt like I needed to address that. I was going to cover it more in the next chapter, but I was working on this and It just made sense to introduce the idea before properly getting into it. I tried making the pacing and actions keep things interesting, but for the points I wanted to reach and the details I wanted in I'm worried it got a little bloated. **

**But, for all the bloat I really liked how this came out compared to how the old one went. I tried writing it so that it could sort of replace how their encounter went. Not too much should be changed for Dante, him spending the evening with Penny. Cinder on the other hand ended with allot more to deal with. Part of me wants to completely rewrite the call, but looking at it I couldn't say Salem and her council would give any more important information then what they gave. Their reactions could differ, between hazel and Cinder the most. But I don't know how long that would take and its already been a bit since. Writing this took a lot longer then I thought it would. I'm coming to realize I'm not very good at keeping with a consistent release schedule. Sorry, I don't mean to drag my feet, but allot of this is still setup for things I wanted to explore in this fic. This next chapter should be the last one used for most set up though like covering what's going on with Remnant, the auras, what the breaking caused, what's happening to Yang, and some other stuff. **

**A few more things: Sorry this took so long to write in the end. I think I need to accept the fact I'm a slow writer right now. I'll keep updating the story as best I can. I was also debating whether to just update chapter four with this in it and an altered Cinder ending but I thought it might make some people miss the update or not want to read chapter four all over again. Like I've mentioned before, it shouldn't change much so rewriting didn't seem worth it for all the confusion. **


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